OCALA, Fla. — A woman accused of shooting and killing her neighbor is facing charges, with law enforcement officials saying that despite the state having a stand-your-ground law, the shooting was “not justifiable under Florida law.”
Susan Lorincz, 58, has been charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault in connection with the death of Ajike Owens, 34, WFTV reported.
Sheriff’s deputies were initially called for a report of trespassing on June 2. While they were on their way, they received a second call at the same location about a shooting.
That’s when they said they found Owens in front of Lorincz’s apartment with a gunshot wound. Paramedics transported Owens to a hospital where she died, investigators said.
Lauren Smith, who lives across the street from where the shooting happened, started chest compressions on Owens before first responders arrived. She said there was no altercation and that Owens did not have a weapon, The Associated Press reported.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office and the major crimes unit investigated, interviewing Lorincz as well as Owen’s children, WFTV reported.
Officials said that there had been prior “incidents and calls for service” between the two women. Police said the incidents stretched for 2 1/2 years, the AP reported.
Detectives said that Lorincz was angry with Owens’ children for playing in a field near her home and that on the day of the shooting, Lorincz started arguing with the children.
Detectives said that at one point, Lorincz threw a roller skate at Owens’ 10-year-old son, hitting him on the toe.
The 10-year-old and his 12-year-old brother then tried to speak to Lorincez, but detectives said that she had opened her door swinging an umbrella at the boys.
The children told their mother, who then went to Lorincez’s apartment, knocking on the door and demanding that she come outside.
That’s when detectives said that Lorincez shot through the door one time. The bullet hi Owens in the upper chest. Owens’ 10-year-old son was standing by his mother, WFTV reported.
Lorincez claimed that Owens had attacked her in a previous incident and that she was acting in self-defense when she pulled the trigger, saying that Owens was trying to break down her door.
Witnesses told detectives what they saw, which lead the sheriff’s department to file the charges against Lorincez. They said the shooting was “not justifiable under Florida law,” WFTV reported.
The sheriff said, according to the AP, that it was not a stand-your-ground case, but rather “simply a killing.”
