A white woman arrested in the fatal shooting of her Black neighbor in Ocala, Fla., was charged Monday with assault and manslaughter with a firearm. In early June, Susan Lorincz, 58, shot and killed Ajike “AJ” Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, over a dispute involving Owens’s children. Lorincz was arrested days later. Marion County State Attorney William Gladson said his office considered second-degree murder, which Owens’s family advocated. While calling Lorincz’s actions “deplorable,” he said there was “insufficient evidence” to support that charge, the Washington Post reports. “I can assure you that the decision was thoughtful and made without consideration of any factors other than the specific facts of this terrible crime,” Gladson said.
Anthony Thomas, an attorney representing the Owens family, said the family still believes “justice demands nothing less” than a second-degree murder charge. “The failure of the prosecutor to charge Susan with what truly reflected her wanton, reckless behavior undermines our ability to even get real accountability,” Thomas said. On June 2, Owens’s children were playing near Lorincz’s home, according to the sheriff’s office. Lorincz argued with them, yelling and throwing a roller skate at one of Owens’s sons. The child and his older brother then went to Lorincz’s house to talk with her. She swung an umbrella at them, the sheriff’s office said.