Florida woman Susan Lorincz was “yelling racial slurs at the children” of the mother she shot through a closed door last week.
The 58-year-old white woman suspected of killing Ajike “AJ” Owens, 35, had been in a long-running feud with her Black neighbor, according to authorities in Marion County, Fla. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump alleges that spat included the use of racial slurs directed at the victim’s kids.
Neighbors said Lorincz frequently became upset when Owens’ children played outsider her door. “She would say nasty things to them,” neighbor Lauren Smith told the Associated Press. Smith said she watched from her porch Friday as one of Owens’ sons shouted “They shot my mama” after the killing.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Department hasn’t addressed a possible racial connection to the shooting. Frustration mounted before Lorincz was finally arrested Tuesday.
“Here’s the thing about justice,” Sheriff Billy Woods said in a video posted online after the suspect was apprehended. “She’s on her own time.”
Woods said his officers investigated, spoke to witnesses and followed the letter of the law rather than “rushing in to make an arrest.”
The sheriff claimed that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the only testimony police had came from the shooter. According to Woods, Lorincz told investigators “there was a lot of aggressiveness from both [she and Owens], back and forth.”
Crump credited the sheriff’s department for making an arrest and demanded justice for Owens at his Wednesday press conference. The high-profile attorney working with Owens’ loves ones also represented the family of Black teenager Treyvon Martin, who was killed in Florida by George Zimmerman in 2012 while walking home from a convenience store unarmed. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, who became involved in a scuffle with Martin, was acquitted due to Florida’s “stand your ground” laws.
Woods said after Lorincz’s arrest that Owens’ case was “simply a killing.” She faces charges including manslaughter.