A white American woman was arrested in Florida on Tuesday, four days after shooting through her door and killing a black mother in a neighborhood dispute, police said. Susan Lorincz is charged with manslaughter and faces 30 years in prison, said Marion County Sheriff's Department, which was slow to arrest the suspect due to a controversial law in force in this southeastern state.
On Friday evening, the 58-year-old woman shot and killed Ajike Owens, 35, in connection with a long-running dispute over the latter's four children, according to their statement. That day, they were playing at a field near Susan Lorincz's home in Ocala. According to a witness, she yelled at them before throwing a roller skate, which hit one of the boys. His 12-year-old brother then rang the doorbell, who chased him away with an umbrella.
He complained to his mother, who, in turn, went to the 50-year-old, knocking on her door and asking her to leave. Instead, it shot through. Ajike Owens was fatally shot in the chest in front of her 10-year-old son. It took four days to arrest the shooter because she invoked the so-called "Stand Your Ground" law, which allows a person to use lethal force in the event of imminent danger, even if there is another possibility of harm. escape it, for example by moving backwards.
Susan Lorincz had assured that her neighbor had tried to force her door, and that she had already attacked her in the past. After collecting testimony, CCTV footage and other material, "investigators were able to determine that Ms. Lorincz's actions were not justifiable under Florida law," the sheriff's department said.
Lawyers for Ajike Owens' family, who had been calling for his arrest since Friday, said they were "relieved". "We are nonetheless concerned that it has taken this long for her to be held accountable," Messrs. Ben Crump and Anthony Thomas added in a statement.
A "Stand Your Ground" law had already slowed the prosecution of an octogenarian in Missouri who in April shot a black teenager who mistakenly rang his doorbell, they recalled, calling for the "eradication" of such " archaic laws" that "disproportionately maim and kill people of color."
