Source: Family / Family provided
Marion County Sheriff’s Office officials arrested and charged the white woman responsible for the fatal shooting of a Black mother of four in Florida.
According to records obtained by MADAMENOIRE, 58-year-old Susan Louise Lorincz was arrested and booked into the Marion County Jail early Wednesday.
Lorincz is facing five charges, including Manslaughter with a Firearm, a first-degree felony punishable by 30 years in prison; culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault after murdering Black mother, Ajike “AJ” Owens.
Marion County Officials confirmed the following story of what happened the night Owens was murdered, which was similar to what the police, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Owens’ mother, Pamela Diaz, said.
On June 2, Owens’ children played in a field near the complex (the neighborhood comprised of single-story duplexes and quadruplexes). Lorincz reportedly grew angry at Owens’ children for no reason and approached them. A neighbor told police they could hear Lorincz yelling at the children. Crump said Lorincz yelled racial slurs. As she yelled at them, the 58-year-old threw a roller skate at Owen’s 10-year-old son, hitting his toe.
While MCSO didn’t mention the iPad, Diaz confirmed to The ReidOut host Joy Reid that Lorincz had taken her grandson’s iPad, and he attempted to retrieve it.
The 10-year-old and his 12-year-old brother approached Lorincz’s duplex to speak with her, but she swung open her door and swung an umbrella at them.
The children decided to get their mother involved. Diaz told Reid that Owens executed her motherly duties by confronting the immature adult refusing to return someone else’s property. Police said Owens knocked on the 58-year-old’s door and demanded she come outside. Out of nowhere, Lorincz fired her gun once through the closed door, the bullet entering Owens’ upper chest. The 10-year-old watched his mother succumb to her injury.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Wood previously explained he couldn’t make an immediate arrest because of Ron DeSantis’ self-defense law, also known as the “Stand Your Ground” law. Wood clarified that investigators needed all information to confirm if Lorincz acted in self-defense or with malicious intent.
However, protesters and the internet disagreed with the MCSO and demanded the perpetrator’s arrest.
Despite Lorincz trying to lie to investigators by claiming that Owens had attempted to break down her door and had attacked her in the past, eyewitnesses came forward. They spoke the truth, leading to the white woman’s justified arrest.
She was given $154,000 bail, according to The Orlando Sentinel.
The Owens family’s attorneys released a statement regarding the arrest.
“While we are relieved that the woman apparently responsible for the tragic killing of Ajike “AJ” Owens has been arrested, we are no less concerned that accountability has taken this long because archaic laws like Stand Your Ground exist,” the statement read. “What does it say when a person can shoot and kill an unarmed mother in the presence of her young children and not be immediately taken into custody, questioned or charged?”
The statement continued, “We will remain vigilant in seeking justice for AJ and other people of color, like Ralph Yarl, who simply knocked on a door and was met with the barrel of a gun. We must eradicate laws like Stand Your Ground that only contributes to the lawlessness of our country and the disproportionate maiming and killing of people of color. This is an important step in a necessary journey to justice for AJ.”
In a video, Diaz thanked everyone who contributed and ensured justice was served.
