The white Florida woman accused of killing a Black mother in front of her children admitted to calling the family racial slurs in the past, police say.
Susan Lorincz also allegedly claimed she acted out of self-defense and purchased the gun used in the shooting after a previous run-in with mother-of-four Ajike Owens.
Lorincz was arrested Tuesday and charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting Owens, 35, through a locked front door after Owens knocked on the door to confront Lorincz for harassing her kids.
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According to an arrest affidavit provided to The Daily Beast, Lorincz told police officers during an interview Saturday that she had been having issues with Owens’ sons for two years “due to their lack of respect for her peace and privacy.” Lorincz claimed Isaac, Israel, and Titus—who were later identified by their grandmother Pamela Dias—were always playing in an area outside her apartment. Lorincz claimed that when she told the children they were trespassing in the past, they said they would kill her.
Ajike Owens
Courtesy of Ben CrumpOn Friday night, Lorincz again complained about Owens’ two kids playing in the grass area near her apartment in Ocala. (The property owner told police that the space was a common area for residents in the complex.) Lorincz took an iPad belonging to the kids, then threw a set of skates at one and swung an umbrella at both of them when they tried to retrieve it, authorities said.
According to the affidavit, the kids left to get their mother, and Owens allegedly banged on Lorincz’s deadbolted door. Lorincz claimed that Owens yelled, “You don’t talk to my sons, I’m going to fucking kill you!”
However, police said they spoke to neighbors who said they never heard Owens make any threats about killing anyone.
Lorincz also claimed Owens was trying to break into her apartment “as hard as she could” by beating the door, but she also admitted that Owens never tried the door handle.
She told Marion County police that she went to her bedroom to retrieve her Remington 380, which she purchased a year before to protect herself from Owens. Lorincz said she “panicked” after grabbing the gun and shot one round through the front door, the affidavit says.
“[Lorincz] advised that she was just fearful of her life and was thinking ‘Go away, get out of this situation, just go away already,’” according to the affidavit from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. She claimed she felt she was in “mortal danger.”
Police conducted a second interview with Lorincz on Tuesday after speaking with neighbors and witnesses. Many of them described Lorincz as an antagonist who frequently harassed kids in the area, called them racial slurs, and called in false police reports on them.
“Lorincz admitted to having used the n-word toward children out of anger in the past and also to calling children other derogatory terms,” investigators wrote in the affidavit.
Police also noted other contradictions in Lorincz’ statements. She first called police at 8:54 p.m. Friday with a trespass complaint, claiming Owens’ children, who lived across the street, were playing near her property. She was on the phone with the dispatcher until 8:59 p.m. Just two minutes later, at 9:01 p.m., police began receiving calls from people who heard a gunshot. Police said that timeline was inconsistent with Lorincz’ previous claim that about 15 minutes passed between her ending her 911 call and her shooting Owens—including two to five minutes of Owens banging loudly on her door.
“Lorincz was confronted with the inconsistency and asked if it was possible that she also mis-remembered or outright lied about what Owens was saying when banging on her door,” the affidavit say. “Lorincz stated that she believes Owens was saying ‘I’m going to kill you.’”
Though Owens and Lorincz allegedly had a rocky relationship, Lorincz conceded to police during the second interview that Owens never actually made any threats of violence during prior run-ins. That appeared to contradict a claim she made in her first interview of Owens’ once throwing a metal “no trespassing” sign at Lorincz, striking her leg.
Lorincz also admitted to researching Stand Your Ground laws and self-defense both prior to the shooting and on the day of her arrest. The affidavit also outlines other questionable behavior: A search warrant of Lorincz’ cell phone showed that she recorded kids playing outside on the night of the shooting, and she refused to cooperate when officers told her she was under arrest, suddenly claiming she was experiencing chest pains and attempting to fall to the ground.
In addition to manslaughter with a firearm, Lorinz faces charges of culpable negligence for discharging her firearm through the door, thereby exposing Owens’ 10-year-old child to personal injury; simple battery for throwing a roller skate at one child; and two counts of simple assault for swinging an umbrella at two children.
Lorincz’ landlord told officers she was going to be evicted, so she is being held in the Marion County Jail without bond.
