A white Florida woman was convicted of manslaughter Friday in the shooting death of a black neighbor amid an ongoing dispute over children playing loudly outside her home.
An all-white jury in Ocala, Fla., found a 60-year-old Susan Lorincz guilty after 2 1/2 hours of deliberation. Lorincz faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing.
Doug Engle/Ocala Star-Banner via AP, Pool
Lorincz had claimed self-defense when she fired a single shot with a .380-caliber handgun through her front door on June 2, 2023, killing 35-year-old Ajike “AJ” Owens. Lorincz told detectives in a videotaped interview that she feared for her life when Owens screamed and pounded on her door.
“I thought I was in imminent danger,” she said in the interview.
The confrontation was the latest in a dispute between Lorincz and Owens over the latter’s children playing in a grassy area near both their houses. Lorincz said in the interview that she had been harassed for most of the three years she lived in the neighborhood.
Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said the self-defense claim was false.
“She wanted to cause harm. She wanted to kill. That’s exactly what she did,” Dias said at a press conference outside the courtroom. “She has no regard for any kind of human life. Certainly not my family.”