Susan Louise Lorincz and Ajika AJ Owens (Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
The family of a woman shot and killed by her neighbor demand that the defendant face a more serious homicide charge; murder in the second degree, not merely manslaughter.
“We don’t believe that Susan had any sort of respect at all for human life,” attorney Anthony Thomas, a lawyer for the family of the slain mother-of-four Ajika “Aj” Owens, 35, said, according to WESH in a Friday report. “She meant to pull that trigger. She meant to point it at the door. And that’s why we feel that murder two charges are applicable here.”
The defendant, Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, shot and killed Owens on June 2 at the culmination of a muti-year feud, according to deputies in Marion County, Florida. They arrested her on June 7 for manslaughter; the local sheriff, Billy Woods, said they had had to investigate more under the state’s “stand your ground” law because Lorincz claimed self-defense. She allegedly asserted that Owens had been trying to break down her door. Lorincz further claimed that Owens had “come after her in the past and previously attacked her.”
Woods on Tuesday evening, however, said that the evidence gathered during the preliminary investigation showed that Lorincz was the antagonist in the dispute and was not acting in self-defense when she fired at Owens. He described the shooting as “simply a killing.”
According to the sheriff’s office news release, interviews with neighbors and witnesses to the shooting — including some of Owens’ own children — as well as forensic evidence and surveillance footage established that Lorincz had, “over a period of time,” grown increasingly upset with Owens’ children for “playing in a field close to her home.”
“On June 2, Lorincz engaged in an argument with the children and was overhead yelling at them by a neighbor. During this argument, Lorincz threw a roller skate at Owens’ 10-year-old son, striking the child in the toe,” the release states. “After this, when the child and his 12-year-old brother went to speak to Lorincz, she opened her door and swung at them with an umbrella. The children then went and told their mother, Owens, about what had happened. Owens approached Lorincz’s home, knocked on the door multiple times, and demanded that Lorincz come outside. Lorincz then fired one shot through the door, striking Owens in her upper chest. At the time she was shot, Owens’ 10-year-old son was standing beside her.”
Charges are manslaughter, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of simple assault.
The arrest came as authorities were coming under increased pressure to bring charges against Lorincz for shooting her unarmed neighbor through the front door of her home after Owens had knocked several times in order to speak with Lorincz about her aggressive and allegedly racist actions towards Owens’ children earlier in the day.
During a Monday vigil, Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said there was no way Lorincz — who she claimed regularly called her grandchildren the “n-word” and “slaves” — believed her life was in danger when she fired at Owens.
“The mother, the protector of her children, she wanted to know why this happened. A closed, locked door. The door never opened,” Dias said. “My daughter, my grandchildren’s mother, was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her. She had no weapon. She posed no imminent threat to anyone.”
Lorincz admitted to investigators that she called the children the “n-word,” according to the arrest report obtained by CBS News. One of the children told authorities that the defendant flipped off the children the night of the shooting, and she said, “Get away from my house, you Black slave.”
Prosecutor Rich Buxman asked for a bond at $200,000.
“She does not have a job,” he said, according to WESH. “She does not have any real property. She doesn’t have a spouse or children.”
Public defender Amanda Sizemore asked for a bond at just over $16,000, saying her client could only afford to post $1,700.
“She has no criminal record,” Sizemore reportedly said. “I think if the court were to set a bond to the amount the state is requesting, it would essentially be tantamount to no bond for her.”
The judge decided on $154,000. Lorincz remains in the Marion County Jail as of Sunday.
“We’re pleased, but we’re not satisfied,” Thomas reportedly said. “Certainly, we would have loved a bond set at something commensurate with the act. Usually on a first-degree charge, usually on no bond, especially when the act is made with a gun.”
A GoFundMe for Owens’ family can be found here.
More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Predator’ locked up for life after sexually assaulting and murdering neighbor with Down syndrome at apartment where she lived alone, wrapping body in Hannah Montana blanket
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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