Sons Of FL Mom Killed Outside Neighbor's Home Blame Themselves: Report

OCALA, FL — The sons of a Black mother who police say was shot and killed by her white neighbor last week are blaming themselves for her death, according to their grandmother.

Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, was killed Friday when her neighbor shot through a door while Owens' 10-year-old son stood beside her. The shooting brought a violent end to what the Marion County Sheriff's Office described as a 2½-year feud between Owens and 58-year-old Susan Louise Lorincz.

Police said the shooting happened after Lorincz became angry with Owens' children, who were playing in a field near her home. Lorincz confronted the children, police said, throwing a roller skate at one and later swinging an umbrella at them.

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After the confrontation, Owens went to Lorincz's home, where police said Lorincz fired one shot through the door, striking Owens in her chest.

Lorincz was arrested Tuesday on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault in connection with Owens' death, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said in a statement.

During a news conference Wednesday, Owens' mother, Pamela Dias, said that her two grandsons, ages 12 and 9, are dealing with guilt because they were with their mom outside Lorincz's house when she was shot.

Dias said Owens' 12-year-old son blames himself for her death because he couldn't give her CPR.

"Grandma, grandma. I couldn't save her," Dias recalled the 12-year-old boy telling her, according to a CNN report.

Owens' 9-year-old son also told Dias he blames himself because he was the one who told his mom about the confrontation with Lorincz, CNN reported.

"In his soul, in his heart, it's his fault that his older brother, his baby sister and his baby brother, as well as himself, will never see their mother again," Dias said.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office said that since January 2021, deputies responded to at least a half-dozen calls in connection with what police described as feuding between Owens and Lorincz.

Before the confrontation, Lorincz had been yelling racial slurs at the children, according to a statement from civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Owens' family. He also represented Trayvon Martin's family in 2012, when the Black teenager was killed in a case that drew worldwide attention to Florida's stand-your-ground law.

In 2017, Florida lawmakers shifted the burden of proof from a person claiming self-defense to prosecutors. Before the change in law, prosecutors could charge someone with a shooting, and then defense attorneys would have to present an affirmative defense for why their client shouldn't be convicted. Now authorities must rule out self-defense before bringing charges.

Stand your ground and "castle doctrine" cases — which allow residents to defend themselves by law or court precedent when threatened — have sparked outrage amid a spate of shootings nationwide.

Lorincz made her initial appearance in court Thursday. She appeared via video hookup wearing a dark protective vest.

In a statement to investigators after the shooting, Lorincz was quoted as saying she had problems for two years with children in the neighborhood not respecting her — including the victim's children.

"Lorincz advised that the children of (Owens) have told her in the past they would kill her," the report says.

The day of the shooting, Lorincz told investigators she had a headache and that "neighbors were outside screaming and yelling, kids were running around" in a grassy area separating two quadruplex apartment buildings, including hers. She said Owens angrily confronted her and threatened to kill her.

Lorincz claimed "that Owens banged on the door so hard everything started shaking and she thought the door was going to come off," and that she panicked and said to herself,"'Oh my god she's really going to kill me this time.'" That's when she fired a single round from her .380-caliber handgun, the report says, noting that Lorincz also had a second handgun in the home.

"Lorincz advised that she purchased the firearm for protection after an altercation with the victim," it says.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.