1662 SW 107th Ln #3, Ocala, FL 34476
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Author: Jewls Krueger
On the evening of June 2, 2023, 35 year old Ajike Shantrell "AJ" Owens, a Black single mother of four, was fatally shot through a closed apartment door by her 58 year old white neighbor Susan Lorincz in the Quail Run community just south of Ocala, Florida.
The shooting capped a roughly two and a half year feud between Lorincz and the Owens family, drew national outrage, and put renewed scrutiny on Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law after the Marion County Sheriff's Office initially declined to make an immediate arrest.
Ajike Owens - Public Domain
Ajike "AJ" Owens was 35 years old and worked in the Ocala area's hospitality industry. She was the daughter of Pamela Dias, a former flight attendant, and the mother of four young children, ranging in age from 3 to 12 at the time of her death. Family members described her as warm, hardworking, and devoted to her kids, who she was raising as a single mother. Friends and family universally called her "AJ."
The Owens family lived in the Quail Run apartment community in Marion County, just south of Ocala. Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, was their neighbor and lived in a separate building in the same community. According to the Marion County Sheriff's Office, Lorincz had been engaged in an ongoing dispute with the Owens family for roughly two and a half years before the killing, regularly complaining about the children playing in a grassy area near her home and using racial slurs against them. Neighbors and law enforcement would later describe her as having a long history of harassing children in the community.
The door through which Susan Lorincz Shot Ajike Shantrell -Public Domain
Around 9 p.m. on Friday, June 2, 2023, Owens' children were playing in a grassy area between two apartment buildings in the Quail Run community when Lorincz once again came out and confronted them. According to the Marion County Sheriff's Office, Lorincz threw a pair of roller skates at the children, striking one of them on the foot. Owens' 9 year old son Isaac and his 12 year old brother walked over to Lorincz's apartment to ask about the incident, and Lorincz swung an umbrella at them.
Isaac then called his mother. Owens walked over to Lorincz's apartment door, pounded on it, and demanded that Lorincz come out. By that point, Lorincz had already called 911. Marion County deputies were en route to the property. Rather than waiting for them to arrive, Lorincz retrieved a .380 caliber handgun from her bedroom, returned to the front of the apartment, and fired a single shot through the closed, locked door, striking Owens in the chest.
When deputies arrived moments later, they found Owens collapsed on Lorincz's doorstep in front of her 9 year old son. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Susan Lorincz's Mugshot - Public Domain
In the days that followed, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods declined to immediately arrest Lorincz, citing the need to evaluate a potential Stand Your Ground defense. The decision drew national outrage, protests at the Marion County Courthouse, and the involvement of civil rights attorney Ben Crump on behalf of the Owens family.
After roughly four days of public pressure, Lorincz was arrested on June 6, 2023 and charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault. She pleaded not guilty on July 10, 2023 and was held on a $150,000 bond.
The trial began August 12, 2024 before a six person all white jury in Marion County Circuit Court. The defense argued that Lorincz had acted in reasonable self defense, claiming Owens had threatened to "kill" her and had been attempting to break in. Prosecutors presented testimony from neighbors who did not hear the alleged threats and emphasized that Owens was unarmed, that the door was locked, and that Lorincz had already called law enforcement. On August 16, 2024, after roughly two and a half hours of deliberation, the jury found Lorincz guilty of first degree felony manslaughter with a firearm.
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On November 25, 2024, Judge Robert Hodges sentenced Lorincz to 25 years in state prison, with the prosecution having asked for the maximum 30 years. "I find that the shooting was completely unnecessary," Hodges said at sentencing. "She was in a relatively safe position... She could have stayed in the room and put another locked door between her and Ms. Owens, but she came back out, put herself in front of the door, and at the time she fired the gun through the door, she was safe."
In the weeks after Owens' death, Pamela Dias, her mother, gave up her career and took custody of her four grandchildren. Dias has since become a vocal critic of Florida's Stand Your Ground law.
The Quail Run apartment community sits along Quail Run Drive in unincorporated Marion County, just south of the Ocala city limits, in central Florida. It is a quiet, modest residential community of two story apartment buildings surrounded by grassy fields. There is no permanent memorial on the property.
Quail Run is private residential property and the apartments where Owens and Lorincz lived remain occupied. Please be respectful of the current residents and remember that members of the Owens family still live in the surrounding area. Stay on public roads at all times, and do not approach any of the apartments or attempt to interact with neighbors.
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