OCALA, Fla. – A white woman accused of fatally shooting her black neighbor through a front door has a history of harassing local children and using racial slurs against them, neighbors said Wednesday.
Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, was arrested Tuesday on charges of involuntary manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, assault and two counts of assault, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. he said in a statement. Homicide with a firearm is a crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
The arrest came just days after authorities say Lorincz shot Ajike “AJ” Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, through her front door in Ocala on Friday night. The sheriff’s office said Owens had approached Lorincz’s home, knocked on the door several times and demanded Lorincz come out to settle a dispute.
At least two of Owens’ children witnessed the shooting, according to the sheriff’s office, which was criticized by civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the grieving family over the pace of the investigation.
It was not immediately clear whether Lorincz, who is being held in the Marion County Jail, had an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
In interviews with NBC News, neighbors recalled the times they said the suspect recorded their children, taunted them with insults, called the police and waved guns at them, just for being kids.
Hours before the shooting, Franklyn Colon was playing in a field with her son and other children when, she said, Lorincz poked her middle finger.
Colon, who added that Owens was the first person to warn him about Lorincz when he moved into the neighborhood about two years ago, said the suspect began recording and yelling “all kinds of nonsense at me, no to the children, to everyone else.”
“Everyone in this neighborhood has fought with this lady over our children”
Phyllis Wills, 33, has lived in the neighborhood for about 15 years. She knew Owens and knew about Lorincz “because he used to go out all the time and bully our kids,” she said. “Everybody in this neighborhood has been fighting this lady over our kids.”
He said Lorincz had a problem with kids just being kids.
Susan Louise Lorincz was arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, assault and two counts of assault.Marion County Sheriff’s Office
“Our children played in the field all the time. It is an apartment complex. They’re kids who, you know, are, they’re going to do things. … Every time they’ve even gone to the grass there, she’s like, ‘Get off my lawn, you clumsy, or retarded, or the N-word.’ She would wave their guns at them,” Wills said.
Wills continued: “She’s been recording them every time she’s gone out. She’s gotten in her truck and blasted the radio as loud as she could to shake the kids. She’s gotten in her truck and honked for long periods of time to shake them. , too. He ran his truck out here, just crazy stuff.”
She said she never called the police on Lorincz, but that she has “stopped in my yard and yelled at her because of the way she talks to kids. But I’ve never actually had a conversation with her. She wasn’t someone with who you can talk to.”
“Mom, Karen called the police on us today”
Sharna Mozell, 36, who has lived in the neighborhood for about 12 years, said Lorincz “was a problem with the kids.”
Her 10-year-old daughter played more often outdoors with other children in the neighborhood.
Lorincz “used to go out and record them constantly. And he’ll just record them while he’s recording the kids, calling their names,” said Mozell, the mother of four children ages 10 to 10. 19.
He added that Lorincz would bully children and was known in the neighborhood as a “Karen,” a sarcastic term for a white woman who bullies people of color and has a reputation for racism. Mozell said her young daughter told her Lorincz would record them and then contact authorities for simply playing.
“‘Mom, Karen called the police on us today,'” Mozell said her daughter would tell her.
She continued: “But the police never do anything… because we’re kids, we’re just playing. Like, I don’t understand, like, what was their motive or what was the problem?”
“The woman shot my mother”
Colon was inside her home around 9 p.m. when she said she heard what sounded like a firecracker. Her son told her that Owens had been shot and that people in the neighborhood, including children, were crying.
According to the sheriff’s office, Lorincz had become angry because Owens’ children were playing in a nearby field and were “arguing” with the children.
During the argument, Lorincz threw a skate at Owens’ 10-year-old son and later swung an umbrella at him and his brother, according to the sheriff’s office. Owens then knocked on Lorincz’s door several times, and Lorincz fired a shot through the door, the sheriff’s office said.
Owens was hit in the upper chest and was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.
Colon said he performed CPR on her until police and EMS arrived.
“When I saw her and everything, I was like, ‘Oh shit.’ I started looking for open wounds. No exit wound, just an upper right breast [wound],” he said.
Colon looked to make sure Lorincz wasn’t nearby, he said, adding that he didn’t go outside after the shooting.
Wills was preparing dinner when one of Owens’ sons knocked on his door.
“It was so loud, my windows were shaking,” she said. “So I was like, ‘What the hell?’ shoot my mom!”
“When she said that, I know who she’s talking about, because she’s the only person here who was involved with the kids,” Wills added.
“This world is very, very unpleasant”
Crump, who represents the Owens family, and relatives and loved ones of the slain woman have said Lorincz had used racial slurs against Owens’ children before the fatal encounter.
One of the children left behind an iPad, which the woman took, he said.
The sheriff’s incident report, which is being redacted, says officers were told at the scene that a woman who was described as a suspect at the time took an iPad.
Deputies had been responding to a trespassing call that night when they were told there had been a shooting, and arrived to find Owens lying in the grass not breathing, according to a sheriff’s office incident report .
Lorincz told investigators he acted in self-defense “and that Owens had been trying to break down his door before he discharged the firearm,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
In an interview Tuesday, Crump said there could be no justification for the killing.
“There is no way she should feel that this person knocking on the door could cause her death or imminent bodily harm,” he said. “And if you felt fear, call the police. Why shoot through a metal door?”
Mozell’s son, Jamerien Wilson, 18, said he witnessed the aftermath of the shooting.
He said when he went outside, he saw police cars everywhere and then saw Owens on the ground and someone doing CPR. He said he didn’t know at the time what happened and didn’t know Owens had been shot.
Wilson said he didn’t know Owens well, but he knows his 12-year-old son because they would play basketball together with other neighborhood kids.
“He never bothered anybody. He was definitely always home and doing what he had to do for his kids,” she said.
“Just another black soul lost on earth, you know. That’s not what we need. Brother, this world is really, really nasty,” Wilson added.
“The mood has changed”
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Crump said he hopes prosecutors will consider upgrading Lorincz’s charges to murder and also take into account witness statements from neighbors who said their children had been molested by the suspect.
“We are grateful to Sheriff Woods for making the arrest. We don’t take it lightly, we don’t take it for granted. For black people to get swift justice in America is not something that happens all the time,” Crump said.
“While we are upset that it has taken four days, we understand because … of laws like standing firm, it can complicate things,” the lawyer added.
Sheriff Billy Woods previously said that before making an arrest, investigators had a legal obligation to determine whether Florida law applied “by asking.”
He said Owens’ killing was not justified under the law of self-defense.
“It was just a carnage,” Woods said.
Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, sat down with MSNBC on Wednesday and spoke at the press conference. Her grandchildren, who range in age from 3 to 12, have been affected “in many ways” since their mother’s death, she said. Dias noted that Owens’ two boys, including a 9-year-old boy who saw his mother killed, blamed each other for her death.
“In his soul, in his heart, it’s his fault,” she said, explaining how the boy told his mother what Lorincz allegedly did before the shooting, which led to the confrontation.
Dias added: “Our 12-year-old boy blames himself for his mother’s death because he couldn’t save her. He couldn’t give her CPR. His words were, ‘Grandma, grandma, I couldn’t save her ‘”.
Mozell said the shooting has also affected the neighborhood. Ocala is a city of about 63,000 about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.
“The mood has changed, the atmosphere has changed here. Nothing’s really different, but you can feel it. It’s weird now because it’s always been quiet. And it’s like something big like this happening is, like , so sad. I’m not used to things like this,” he said.
Minyvonne Burke reported from Ocala, Florida, and Antonio Planas from New York City.
