IT’S THE GUNS
A woman accused of fatally shooting her neighbor through a closed door earlier this month will not face murder charges, Florida officials said. The state will instead charge Susan Lorincz with one count of manslaughter with a firearm and one count of assault, State Attorney Bill Gladson said in a statement released Monday. Lorincz could face up to 30 years in prison.
Lorincz, a 58-year-old White woman from Marion County, is accused of killing her Black neighbor, Ajike “AJ” Owens after Owens repeatedly knocked on her door. Investigators have said Lorincz became angry because several neighborhood children, including Owens’ children, were playing near her home.
The Owens family previously told CNN Lorincz harassed Owens and her children and used racial slurs toward them prior to the killing. One of Owens’ young sons witnessed the shooting.
“In order to prove the crime of second-degree murder, the state must prove beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt, the existence of a depraved mind toward the victim at the time of the killing,” Gladson said. “Depraved mind requires evidence of hatred, spite, ill will or evil intent toward the victim at the time of the killing. As deplorable as the defendant’s actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove this specific and required element of second-degree murder.”
Owens’ family and neighbors have accused Lorincz of using racial slurs.
“The fact that racial epithets were used on a regular basis and even used in this instance to us – definitely speaks to a depraved mind,” family spokesperson Takema Robinson said.
“Neighbors have made statements to law enforcement that Susan called all the little brown and Black kids in that neighborhood racial slurs, and she harassed them all, so that definitely needs to be looked into,” family attorney Anthony Thomas said.
