Sons of slain Florida mom Ajike 'AJ' Owens blame themselves for her death
Two of Ajike “AJ” Owens’ sons blame themselves for her death after she was shot and killed by a neighbor over a multi-year feud about the children playing outside their Florida apartment complex, their grandmother said.
Marion County police arrested Susan Lorincz, 58, after she allegedly shot Owens, 35, through her door during a confrontation Friday night in Ocala.
Owens approached Lorincz’s apartment after the neighbor allegedly yelled racial slurs at Owens’ kids and hit one of them with a roller skate.
Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, told reporters Wednesday that the children are devastated over their mother’s death and believe they are the ones at fault after they told her about what Lorincz had allegedly done to them.
Dias said that Owens’ 9-year-old son “witnessed his mother [get] shot and killed. In his soul and his heart, it’s his fault that his older brother, his baby sister, and his baby brother, as well as himself, will never see their mother again, because he went home and told his mother what this woman did to him.”
Dias added that Owens’ oldest son, a 12-year-old, is also blaming himself and is traumatized over his inability to save his mother.
Two of Ajike “AJ” Owens’ sons blame themselves for her death after she was shot and killed by a neighbor. AP
“He told me ‘I couldn’t save her. I tried to give her CPR,'” Dias said of the conversation with her sobbing grandson.
“They witness their mother murdered in cold blood, taking her away from them at such an early age. This is not fair that they have to deal with this,” she added.
Dias and her family’s attorney, national civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, called on prosecutors to upgrade Lorincz’s manslaughter charge to murder, while also expressing their frustration that it took four days after the incident for police to announce that they arrested the shooter.
“One of the reasons I am so relieved that Sheriff [Billy] Woods made that arrest last night is that it tells Pamela’s children it was not their fault,” Crump said Wednesday.
Marion County police arrested Susan Lorincz, 58, after she allegedly shot Owens, 35, through her door during a confrontation Friday night in Ocala. AP
“We have to remember now this is only the first step for justice. The state attorney, now that Sheriff Woods has done his job, now has a job to do and that is to zealously prosecute the killer of AJ Owens,” he continued. “We want him to zealously prosecute the killer of AJ Owens, just like he would do if the roles had been reversed and a black woman had shot a white woman in front of her children through a locked metal door.”
Owens was shot dead through her neighbor’s door in Ocala on Friday night in what Sheriff Woods said in a Monday press conference was the culmination of a two-and-a-half-year feud at an apartment complex.
Crump, who represented Travon Martin’s family in the landmark fatal stand-your-ground case, said Lorincz had yelled racial slurs at Owens’ children, leading to friction between them.
Phyllis Wills, another neighbor in the apartment complex, told reporters that Lorincz had called the children “slaves.”
Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, told reporters Wednesday that the children are devastated over their mother’s death and believe they are the ones at fault. 10 Tampa Bay
During a dispute between Lorincz and the young kids, she threw a roller skate that hit a 10-year-old boy, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday. When the boy and his 12-year-old brother went to her door, she allegedly opened her door and swung an umbrella at them.
Owens then went to confront the woman and demanded she come outside. The mother was shot once and rushed to a nearby hospital where she died.
The sheriff’s office said in the release announcing the arrest that the shooter claimed she pulled the trigger in self-defense and accused Owens of trying to break down the door.
Woods, however, said that officers found no evidence for the claim, telling Fox 35 that the shooting was not a “stand your ground” case.
Source: New York Post
