White Florida Woman Arrested for Fatally Shooting Black Neighbor

A Florida woman has been arrested for fatally shooting her neighbour through a door in an allegedly racially charged confrontation over the slain woman’s children.

Susan Lorincz, 58, has been taken into custody on manslaughter charges for the death of 35-year-old Ajike Owens, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Lorincz is white while Owens, the mother of four children, is Black.

Lorincz was arrested on Tuesday, four days after the shooting which took place at an apartment complex in the central city of Ocala, the sheriff’s office said.

It said Lorincz had been angry at Owens’ children, who were playing in a field close to her home and was heard yelling at them by another neighbour.

“During this argument, Lorincz threw a roller skate at Owens’ 10-year-old son, striking the child in the toe,” the sheriff’s office said.

“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,” it said.

Owens, the children’s mother, went to Lorincz’s home with her 10-year-old son and demanded that she come outside, the sheriff’s office said.

“Lorincz then fired one shot through the door, striking Owens in her upper chest.”

The sheriff’s office said Lorincz claimed Owens was trying to break down her door and that she acted in self-defence in line with Florida’s “stand-your-ground” laws.

The sheriff’s office said investigators concluded, however, that “Lorincz’s actions were not justifiable under Florida law.”

According to civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Lorincz had hurled “racial slurs” at the children before the shooting of their mother.

Lorincz faces multiple charges including manslaughter with a firearm, which carries a sentence of 30 years in prison.