Florida woman arrested after fatally shooting neighbor over playing children: Sheriff
OCALA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her neighbor last week in the violent culmination of what the sheriff described as a 2 1/2-year feud was arrested Tuesday, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.
Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, who is white, was arrested on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault in the death of Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four, Sheriff Billy Woods said in a statement.
Authorities came under pressure Tuesday to arrest and charge the white woman who fired through her front her door and killed a Black neighbor in a case that has put Florida’s divisive stand-your-ground law back into the spotlight.
Woods said that this was not a stand-your-ground case but “simply a killing.
FILE – A small memorial is seen outside an apartment, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Ocala, Fla., where Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four was killed in a Friday night, June 2, shooting. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
When interviewed, Lorincz claimed that she acted in self-defense and that Owens had been trying to break down her door prior to her discharging her firearm. Lorincz also claimed that Owens had come after her in the past and had previously attacked her. Through their investigation – including obtaining the statements of eyewitnesses – detectives were able to establish that Lorincz’s actions were not justifiable under Florida law, a statement from the sheriff’s office said.
About three dozen mostly Black protesters gathered outside the Marion County Judicial Center to demand that the shooter be arrested in the country’s latest flashpoint over race and gun violence. The chief prosecutor, State Attorney William Gladson, met with the protesters and urged patience while the investigation continues.
“If we are going to make a case we need as much time and as much evidence as possible,” Gladson said. “I don’t want to compromise any criminal investigation and I’m not going to do that.”
Owens, 35, was killed in the Friday night shooting, Woods said. The women lived in the rolling hills south of Ocala, a north Florida city that is the heart of the state’s horse country.
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Woods had said Monday that detectives were working with the State Attorney’s Office and must investigate possible self-defense claims before they can move forward with any possible criminal charges. The sheriff pointed out that because of the stand-your-ground law, he can’t legally make an arrest unless he can prove the shooter did not act in self-defense.
On Tuesday, a stuffed teddy bear and bouquets marked the area near where Owens was shot. Nearby, children were riding bikes and scooters, and playing basketball. Protesters chanted “No justice, no peace” and “A.J. A.J. A.J” using Owens’ nickname. They carried signs saying: “Say her name Ajike Owens” and “It’s about us.”
Outside, the Rev. Bernard Tuggerson said the Black community in Ocala has suffered injustices for years. “Marion County is suffering and needs to be healed completely,” he said. “If we don’t turn from our wicked ways of the world, it’s going to be an ongoing problem. We want answers.”
The sheriff said Owens was shot moments after going to Lorincz’s apartment, who had yelled at Owens’ children as they played in a nearby lot. He also said Lorincz had thrown a pair of skates that hit one of the children.
FILE – Protesters gather in outside the state attorney’s office at the Marion County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Ocala, demanding the arrest of a woman who shot and killed Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, last Friday night, June 2. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Deputies responding to a trespassing call at the apartment Friday night found Owens suffering from gunshot wounds. She later died at a hospital.
Before the confrontation, Lorincz had been yelling racial slurs at the children, according to a statement from civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Owens’ family. He also represented Trayvon Martin’s family in 2012, when the Black teenager was killed in a case that drew worldwide attention to the state’s stand-your-ground law.
The sheriff’s office hasn’t confirmed there were slurs uttered or said whether race was a factor in the shooting.
Lauren Smith, 40, lives across the street from where the shooting happened. She was on her porch that day and saw one of Owens’ young sons pacing, and yelling, “They shot my mama, they shot my mama.”
FILE – A patched bullet hole, upper right, is seen on a door, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, where Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, was shot and killed the week before, moments after going to the apartment of her neighbor who had yelled at Owens’ children as they played in a nearby lot, in Ocala, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
She ran toward the house and started chest compressions until a rescue crew arrived. She said there wasn’t an altercation and that Owens didn’t have a weapon.
“She was angry all the time that the children were playing out there,” Smith said. “She would say nasty things to them. Just nasty.” Smith, who is white, described the neighborhood is family friendly.
The sheriff said that since January 2021, deputies responded at least a half-dozen calls in connection with what police described as feuding between Owens and Lorincz.
There was a lot of aggressiveness from both of them, back and forth,” the sheriff said Lorincz told investigators. “Whether it be banging on the doors, banging on the walls and threats being made. And then at that moment is when Ms. Owens was shot through the door.
“I’m absolutely heartbroken,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, told The Associated Press. She described the fatal shooting as “so senseless.”
FILE – A protester, holds a poster of Ajike Owens at the Marion County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Ocala, demanding the arrest of a woman who shot and killed Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, last Friday night, June 2. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
“We’ve seen this again and again across this country,” she said, adding that “it’s really because of lax gun laws and a culture of shoot first.”
Ferrell-Zabala said stand-your-ground cases, which she refers to as “shoot first laws,” are deemed justifiable five times more frequently when a white shooter kills a Black victim.
In 2017, Florida lawmakers updated the state’s self-defense statute to shift the burden of proof from a person claiming self-defense to prosecutors. That means authorities have to rule out self-defense before bringing charges. Before the change in law, prosecutors could charge someone with a shooting, and then defense attorneys would have to present an affirmative defense for why their client shouldn’t be convicted.
In fact, stand-your-ground and “castle doctrine” cases — which allow residents to defend themselves either by law or court precedent when threatened — have sparked outrage amid a spate of shootings across the country.
In April, 84-year-old Andrew Lester, a white man, shot and injured 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who rang his doorbell in Kansas City after mistakenly showing up at the wrong house to pick up his younger siblings. Lester faces charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action; at trial, he may argue that he thought someone was trying to break into his house, as he told police.
FILE – Protesters gather in outside the state attorney’s office at the Marion County Courthouse, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Ocala, demanding the arrest of a woman who shot and killed Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, last Friday night, June 2. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Missouri and Florida are among about 30 states that have stand-your-ground laws.
The most well-known examples of the stand-your-ground argument came up in the trial of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman, who had a white father and Hispanic mother, told police that Martin attacked him, forcing him to use his gun in self-defense. He was allowed to go free but was arrested about six weeks later after Martin’s parents questioned his version of events and then-Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor.
Before trial, Zimmerman’s attorneys chose not to pursue a stand-your-ground claim, which could have resulted in the dismissal of murder changes as well as immunity from prosecution. But during the trial, the law was essentially used as part of his self-defense argument. Jurors found him not guilty.
At a vigil Monday, Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said that she was seeking justice for her daughter and her grandchildren.
“My daughter, my grandchildren’s mother, was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her,” Dias said. “She had no weapon. She posed no imminent threat to anyone.”
Police: Woman arrested after trespassing, interrupting a class at a Woodbridge school
A 36-year-old Woodbridge woman was being held without bond Friday morning after she allegedly entered John Jenkins Elementary School in Woodbridge without permission late Thursday afternoon and interrupted a class in progress, prompting a scuffle with a school staff member who attempted to remove her, according to police.
Police were called to Jenkins Elementary, located at 4060 Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge, at 3:40 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, in response to reports of a trespasser.
A police investigation revealed that an unarmed woman parked her car at the front of the school and followed a parent into the building. Two school staff members –a 55-year-old woman and a 31-year-old woman – asked who she was and why she was in the school, but the woman continued to walk past them. The staff members tried repeatedly to stop her and tell her she was not allowed in the school, according to 1st Sgt. Jonathan Perok, spokesman for the Prince William County Police Department.
The intruder pushed both staff members before proceeding to an upper floor of the school, where she then “forcibly entered one of the classrooms, where the teacher was actively instructing students,” Perok said in a news release.
“The teacher moved the children quickly and safely to the opposite side of the classroom,” Perok said.
Another staff member, a 36-year-old woman, then attempted to remove the intruder from the room, which led to a struggle. During the struggle, the intruder pulled the staff member’s glasses from her face, Perok said.
The building was secured and police were immediately contacted. Officers arrived and located the intruder in the same classroom she entered. She was taken into custody without further incident, Perok said.
Minor injuries were reported. The intruder has no known connection to the school, and it is not known why she entered the building, Perok said.
Ronesha Juanita Murray, 38, of Woodbridge, was arrested and charged with three counts of assault and battery, one count of trespassing and one count of disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, the release said.
Murray was being held without bond Friday morning at the Prince William-Manassas Adult Detention Center Friday, the release said.
New Jersey woman leaves cable TV worker suspended in air after dispute
Reporter Toni Yates has more on the dispute.
RIDGEWOOD, New Jersey (WABC) — Police in New Jersey say a woman got angry at a cable TV worker and left her stranded in the air.
Police say the dispute started in Ridgewood on Monday between a woman and an Optimum employee.
59-year-old Elena Gerlihman is accused of turning off the worker’s truck while she was in the lift, leaving her stuck in midair.
Gerlihman will be headed to court later this month after she was arrested on several charges, including harassment, false imprisonment, disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing.
Police say an Optimum cable worker was high in the bucket, working on the lines at East Ridgewood Avenue and South Pleasant Avenue when she called police saying Gerlihman came from her home, began arguing, then took the keys from the truck which left the worker suspended in the air up in the bucket with no way to lower it.
Gerlihman denied she pulled the keys out. “She made the story..talk to her,” said Gerlihman.
A local business owner claimed that a little more than two years ago Gerlihman pulled a similar tactic on a delivery truck driver, swiping the keys from his idling vehicle. The store called police.
Gerlihman lives directly across from a couple of businesses that often receive deliveries. The store clerk says she’s complained about trucks left idling. “I have no idea about truck at all,” she said.
As for the Optimum worker left suspended in the bucket, Optimum’s parent company Altice said in a statement, “It is incredibly unfortunate that an individual would try to harm one of our employees while on the job.”
It goes on to say, “We are pleased our employee was not harmed as a result of this incident.”
But Gerlihman maintains it didn’t happen.
