A “neighborhood feud” in Florida over kids proved to be fatal late last week when one mother shot and killed another mother, a story that has since taken on national interest because the woman who died was black, and the woman who shot her was white — this being all that it took to draw in Ben Crump, an attorney who has made his name driving racial discord in America.
The shooting took place late Friday in Ocala, when responding deputies found Ajike “AJ” Shantrell Owens with a gunshot wound, according to Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods. She was taken to the hospital, where she died.
Owens, the mother of four children, went to the home of Susan Lorincz to “reportedly confront her about allegations she threw a rollerblade skate at one of her kids earlier in the day,” FOX 35 reported. “Deputies said Lorincz fired one shot through her closed front door, striking Owens in the chest. Her young son was with her when the shooting happened.”
Woods said the ensuing encounter between the two women was “aggressive,” and may have involved banging on doors and verbal threats. Lorincz, 58, was not arrested right away and reportedly is claiming that the shooting was in self-defense under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
The law states “a person is justified in using or threatening to use force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or herself or another against the other’s imminent use of unlawful force.”
Her not being taken into custody right away prompted an outcry that drew Crump into the fray — after being retained by the family, he released a statement claiming Lorincz had yelled racial slurs at the Owens children after confronting them earlier in the day for playing in a field that presumably belonged to her.
MEDIA ALERT: @AttorneyCrump, attorney Anthony D. Thomas, and the family of AJ Owens — a mother who was shot after knocking on an unidentified woman’s door — will hold a news conference today (6/5) to demand that the shooter be arrested for this unjustified killing. pic.twitter.com/BfmTundS4p
— Ben Crump Law, PLLC (@BenCrumpLaw) June 5, 2023
On Tuesday, Lorincz was booked into the Marion County Jail on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and assault, according to the sheriff’s office.
“On her side of the story, she made claims that her life was being threatened,” Sheriff Woods told the Fox affiliate.
“The way the laws are written in this state, and this is what people need to understand – our hands are tied in law enforcement in these cases where we are instructed that we cannot make an arrest because we have to rule out whether the shooting was justified or unjustified,” he added.
Woods would ultimately state, “Let me make that clear. This was not ‘stand your ground.’ It was an unjustified shooting.”
Owens’ family released a statement late Tuesday targeting Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which has been in the left’s crosshairs since the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012.
“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 family said. “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, and charged?”
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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