‘Ongoing feud’ over kids ends with neighbor killing single mom of 4, Florida sheriff says
UPDATE: Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, has been arrested in the fatal June 2 shooting of Ajike Owens and charged with “manslaughter with a firearm, a first-degree felony punishable by 30 years imprisonment, as well as culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault,” according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
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A single mother of four was fatally shot by her neighbor amid an ongoing “neighborhood feud” involving her children, Florida officials and family members say.
Ajike Owens, 35, was shot at least once by her neighbor around 9 p.m. on Friday, June 2, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said in a June 5 news conference. Deputies were responding to a trespassing call when they learned that shots had been fired.
Owens was found shot and was taken to a hospital, where she died, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
The accused shooter was identified as Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, and she told investigators “she acted in self-defense and that Owens had been trying to break down her door prior to her discharging her firearm,” the sheriff’s office said in a June 7 update.
“Lorincz also claimed that Owens had come after her in the past and had previously attacked her. Through their investigation – including obtaining the statements of eyewitnesses who only came forward as late as yesterday — detectives were able to establish that Lorincz’s actions were not justifiable under Florida law,” officials said.
“Lorincz was arrested for manslaughter with a firearm, a first-degree felony punishable by 30 years imprisonment, as well as culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault.”
Woods said the neighbor was involved in an altercation with Owens’ children ahead of the shooting. The children went home and told their mom about the disagreement.
After engaging with the children, the neighbor went back into her home. Owens then went to the woman’s unit and a confrontation with “a lot of aggressiveness” took place, Woods said. The neighbor then shot Owens through her front door, police said.
“At the time she was shot, Owens’ 10-year-old son was standing beside her,” officials said.
Deputies are waiting to conduct more interviews with the kids, but Woods said his office has learned that the neighbor threw a pair of skates that hit the children.
Ben Crump, an attorney working with Owens’ family, said the neighbor took an iPad that the children had left in a field.
“It is believed that Owens’ children accidentally left the device behind in a field they were playing in, and the woman took it,” Crump wrote in a June 5 Instagram post.
Woods said deputies have responded to about six to eight calls since January 2021 about the ongoing dispute.The calls were typically property and trespassing disputes, which are usual for deputies, according to the sheriff.
“It’s a wide range of children playing in the front of the apartment or quadruplex, whatever you want to call it, or being on the property,” he said. “That’s children being children.”
Owens’ family members and loved ones are calling for the accused shooter to be arrested.
“My baby was so full of life,” Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, said during a separate June 5 news conference with the family’s attorney. “To know her, is to know that her kids were everything.”
Neither Crump nor the family’s attorney Anthony Thomas immediately responded to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
The family is asking that the sheriff’s office conduct a thorough investigation of the incident, according to a June 6 Facebook post from Owens’ friend, Kimberly Robinson-Jones.
“Today we ask that we continue to push for answers and request that the sheriff’s office conduct a full and thorough investigation. We don’t want a rush job on her case that leads to a conviction that won’t stick,” Robinson-Jones wrote. “We will not rest until justice is served for AJ.”
Others are advocating for an arrest in the case, too. Rep. Dotie Joseph said she has been working with other legislators.
“We believe there is some video, and the children involved have been interviewed by law enforcement. An arrest is likely imminent, and we are asking for one by the end of today,” Joseph told McClatchy News.
Rep. Michele K. Rayner-Goolsby also called for an arrest in a June 6 tweet.
“I am calling on the Marion County Sheriff’s Office to issue a warrant for Ms. Owens’s killer,” Rayner-Goolsby said. “The fact the perpetrator is still able to sleep in bed and be in the comfort of her home is unconscionable. It reinforces the community distrust of law enforcement and two Americas.”
Ocala is about 80 miles northwest of Orlando.
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