Fatal Florida shooting of next-door neighbor restores Stand Your Ground argument

Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, who is white, was detained on charges of murder with a gun, culpable neglect, battery and 2 counts of attack in the death of Ajike Owens, a Black mom of 4, Sheriff Billy Woods stated in a declaration.

Authorities came under pressure Tuesday to detain and charge the female who fired through her front her door and eliminated Owens in a case that has actually put Florida’s dissentious stand your ground law back into the spotlight.

In a video published on Facebook late Tuesday night, the constable stated this was not a stand your ground case however “simply a killing.”

“Now many of you were struggling to understand why there was not an immediate arrest,” the constable stated. “The laws here in the state of Florida are clear. Now I may not like them. I may not agree with them. But however, those laws I will follow.”

The video shared by the constable’s workplace reveals 2 investigators and a deputy leading down a corridor with her hands behind her back.

Jail records reveal she was scheduled, however did not note a legal representative who might speak on her behalf. It wasn’t right away clear when she would make her very first court look.

Deputies reacting to a trespassing call Friday night discovered Owens with gunshot injuries.

The area of single-story duplexes and quadruplexes remains in the rolling hills beyond Ocala. The location is understood for its pedigreed horse farms, which surround the working-class area.

Lorincz informed detectives that she acted in self-defense, which Owens, 35, had actually been attempting to break down her door prior to she fired the weapon, the constable stated. She likewise informed them that Owens had actually followed her in the past, and had actually formerly assaulted her.

Sheriff Woods stated the examination, that included eyewitness declarations, developed that Lorincz’s actions were not understandable under Florida law.

On Tuesday, about 3 lots protesters, the majority of them Black, collected outside the Marion County Judicial Center, requiring the shooter’s arrest. The primary district attorney, State Attorney William Gladson, met the protesters and prompted perseverance while the examination continues.

“If we are going to make a case we need as much time and as much evidence as possible,” Gladson stated. “I don’t want to compromise any criminal investigation.”

Earlier the constable had actually stated that due to the fact that of the stand your ground law he couldn’t make an arrest unless he might show the shooter did not act in self-defense.

In the area a packed teddy bear and arrangements marked the location near where Owens was shot. Nearby, kids were riding bikes and scooters, and playing basketball.

Some protesters collected downtown, shouting “No justice, no peace” and “A.J. A.J. A.J” utilizing Owens’ label, on Tuesday afternoon.

The constable stated Owens was shot minutes after going to Lorincz’s home after she screamed had at Owens’ kids as they played in a grassy location outside neighboring. He likewise stated Lorincz had actually tossed a set of skates that struck among the kids.

Before the conflict, Lorincz had actually been screaming racial slurs at the kids, according to a declaration from civil liberties lawyer Ben Crump, who is representing Owens’ household. He likewise represented Trayvon Martin’s household in 2012, when the Black teen was eliminated in a case that drew around the world attention to the state’s stand your ground law.

The constable’s workplace hasn’t validated there were slurs said or stated whether race was a consider the shooting.

In a declaration late Tuesday, Crump stated while Owens’ household is “relieved” that an arrest has actually been made, they stay worried it has actually taken this long because “archaic laws like Stand Your Ground exist”

Lauren Smith, 40, lives throughout the street from where the shooting occurred. She was on her patio that day and saw among Owens’ young kids pacing, and screaming, “They shot my mama, they shot my mama.”

She ran towards your house, and began chest compressions till a rescue team got here. She stated there wasn’t a run-in which Owens didn’t have a weapon.

“She was angry all the time that the children were playing out there,” Smith stated. “She would say nasty things to them. Just nasty.” Smith, who is white, explained the area is household friendly.

The constable stated that because January 2021, deputies reacted a minimum of a half-dozen employ connection with what cops referred to as feuding in between Owens and Lorincz.

“There was a lot of aggressiveness from both of them, back and forth,” the constable stated Lorincz informed detectives. “Whether it be banging on the doors, banging on the walls and threats being made. And then at that moment is when Ms. Owens was shot through the door.”

“I’m absolutely heartbroken,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, informed The Associated Press. She explained the deadly shooting as “so senseless.”

“We’ve seen this again and again across this country,” she stated, including that “it’s really because of lax gun laws and a culture of shoot first.”

Ferrell-Zabala stated stand your ground cases are considered understandable 5 times more often when a white shooter eliminates a Black victim.

In 2017, Florida legislators moved the problem of evidence from an individual declaring self-defense to district attorneys. Before the modification in law, district attorneys might charge somebody with a shooting, and after that defense lawyer would need to provide an affirmative defense for why their customer shouldn’t be founded guilty. Now authorities should eliminate self-defense prior to bringing charges.

Stand your ground and “castle doctrine” cases — which enable citizens to protect themselves either by law or court precedent when threatened — have actually triggered outrage in the middle of a wave of shootings throughout the nation.

In April, 84-year-old Andrew Lester, a white guy, shot and hurt 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, a Black teen who sounded his doorbell in Kansas City. Yarl incorrectly went to the incorrect home to get his more youthful brother or sisters. Lester deals with criminal charges. At trial, he might argue that he believed somebody was attempting to burglarize his home.

Missouri and Florida are amongst about 30 states that have stand your ground laws.

The most widely known examples of the stand your ground argument turned up in the trial of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in 2012.

At a vigil Monday in Ocala, Owens’ mom, Pamela Dias, stated that she was looking for justice for her child and her grandchildren.

“My daughter, my grandchildren’s mother, was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her,” Dias stated. “She had no weapon. She posed no imminent threat to anyone.”

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Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale.