OCALA, Fla. — A white woman charged with fatally shooting her Black neighbor through a closed door said she bought the handgun used in the killing about a year ago after an altercation between them, an arrest affidavit states.
The woman, Susan Louise Lorincz, also told investigators that she called neighborhood children the N-word “out of anger in the past,” according to an addendum filed with the court Thursday. The case has drawn national attention and raised questions about race and Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense law.
Authorities have said Lorincz had a long-standing "neighborhood feud" with the victim, Ajike "AJ" Owens, about Owens' children's playing in a grass field near Lorincz's rented home.
Lorincz said she had “been having a problem” with the children for about two years “due to their lack of respect for her peace and privacy,” according to the affidavit. She also alleged that the children had threatened to kill her, it says.
She told investigators, according to the affidavit, that she bought a .380-caliber Remington gun "for protection after an altercation" with Owens; it is not clear when the incident is alleged to have occurred. Lorincz also owns a .22-caliber Ruger, the affidavit says.
Attorneys for the Owens family did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The affidavit details only one previous incident between the women, in February 2022, when Lorincz alleged that Owens came to her home and confronted her about an argument between her children and Lorincz, the affidavit says.
“The argument centered around Lorincz not liking the juveniles around her apartment,” it says.
According to an incident report about the case, Lorincz said Owens ripped a metal no-trespassing sign out of the ground and threw it toward Lorincz, striking her in a leg. Owens said she threw the sign down as she was leaving but did not throw it toward Lorincz, authorities said. No one was arrested.
On Friday, the night of the shooting, Owens' children had been playing in the field.
Lorincz told investigators that she told the children to leave and that she threw a pair of roller skates in the yard and told one of the children to go "fetch them," according to the affidavit. She said she did not throw the skates at anyone and "just threw them in the yard due to the juveniles leaving items in the yard near her residence," it says.
Ben Crump, who is representing the Owens family, said one of the children left an iPad while leaving. He said Lorincz took it — an allegation she denies, according to the affidavit.
Owens went to Lorincz's home, the sheriff's office said. Lorincz said Owens "started banging on her door while yelling, ‘I’m going to f------ kill you!'" the affidavit says, noting that other people investigators interviewed said they did not hear Owens threaten to kill Lorincz.
Lorincz said that "Owens banged on the door so hard everything started shaking and she thought the door was going to come off,” the affidavit says. "She advised that she panicked and stated to herself, ‘Oh my god she’s really going to kill me this time.’ At that point, Lorincz advised she fired one round from her handgun. She advised she retrieved the firearm from the trashcan in her bedroom where she normally stores the weapon."
Asked whether Lorincz thought Owens was trying to get inside her home, she told investigators, “She was trying as hard as she could,” the affidavit says.
“I asked her if that meant she was trying the door handle, and Lorincz said she was just beating the door. Lorincz advised she yelled back through the door that the victim was trespassing,” it says.
Lorincz said she fired the round from the kitchen, according to the affidavit. Owens, 35, a mother of four, was hit in the upper chest and pronounced dead at a hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.
Lorincz, 58, was arrested Tuesday on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence and battery and two counts of assault.
She made her first court appearance Thursday by video and entered a written plea of not guilty, according to court documents. During the hearing, Lorincz said she worked up until two weeks ago, does not have any savings and helped take care of her sister. Her attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Several residents said Lorincz had a history of harassing children who played in the field and would use racial slurs against them. She would also call the police on the children, Sharna Mozell, 36, told NBC News.
Lorincz “used to come outside, and she used to record them constantly. And she’ll just flick them off while she’s recording the kids, calling them out their names,” said Mozell, the mother of four children ages 10 to 19.
She added that Lorincz would bully children and was known in the neighborhood as a “Karen,” a sarcastic term for a white woman who harasses people of color and has a reputation for racism. Mozell said her youngest daughter told her that Lorincz would record them and then contact authorities for the mere act of playing.
“‘Mama, Karen called the police on us today,’” Mozell said her daughter would tell her.
In addition to racial slurs, Lorincz admitted to investigators that she called children "other derogatory terms," according to Thursday's addendum.
Phyllis Wills, 33, said that "everybody in this neighborhood has feuded" with Lorincz over their children.
She said Lorincz had a problem with children simply being children.
