Case Classification: Homicide / Felony Manslaughter with a Firearm
Jurisdiction: Marion County, Florida, USA
Incident Date: June 2, 2023
Status: Conviction upheld; appeal filed January 2025
The Victim
Ajike “AJ” Shantrell Owens was a 35-year-old Black mother of four children: Isaac, Afrika, Titus, and Israel. She worked as a manager at a McDonald’s on Highway 326 in Ocala, Florida. By all accounts, she was a devoted parent who spent her time outside work throwing a ball around with her kids and being an active presence in her tight-knit apartment community. On the evening of June 2, 2023, after her neighbor allegedly threw roller skates at her nine-year-old son and swung an umbrella at her twelve-year-old, Owens walked across a shared grassy area to knock on the neighbor’s door. She was not armed. She was holding an iPad.
She was shot once, through a locked metal door, and died that night.
The Perpetrator
Susan Louise Lorincz, a white woman, was 59 years old at the time of the shooting and had lived in the same apartment complex for approximately three years prior to the incident. She had no prior criminal record. Court proceedings and witness accounts established that Lorincz had a history of directing racial slurs at Owens’ children and had made repeated complaints, to the sheriff’s office, animal control, and property management, about Owens’ family over a period of more than two years.
Lorincz owned a .380-caliber handgun, which she had purchased approximately one year before the shooting. She claimed to have bought it for protection. On the night of June 2, she called 911 before firing, telling the dispatcher that people were threatening her, establishing a narrative of fear for the record prior to any shot being fired.
Chronology of Key Events
The Physical Evidence
The door through which Lorincz fired was locked and intact at the time of the shooting, no dents, no damage around the lock or handle. This directly contradicted Lorincz’s trial testimony that Owens was banging so hard she believed the door would break down. Prosecutors established that there was no evidence Owens attempted to force entry. A videotaped interview conducted by investigators after the shooting showed Lorincz stating she fired in self-defense, claiming she feared for her life as Owens yelled and pounded on the door.
The Legal Framework: Stand Your Ground
Marion County investigators determined that Florida’s Stand Your Ground law did not apply to Lorincz’s actions: you cannot shoot through a door at an unarmed person and legally claim justifiable self-defense under the statute. Despite this, the invocation of Stand Your Ground created legal and procedural complexity around the case, as prosecutors were required to prove that Lorincz did not have a “reasonable belief” that her life was in danger, a subjective standard. Florida was the first state to pass a modern “Shoot First” law, and research has shown its implementation was associated with a 24% increase in monthly homicide rates and a 32% increase in monthly firearm homicide rates. In Stand Your Ground states, homicides in which white shooters kill Black victims are deemed justifiable five times more frequently than when the situation is reversed.
Charges, Verdict & Sentencing
Lorincz was originally charged with first-degree manslaughter, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault. The State Attorney’s Office, led by Bill Gladson, declined to upgrade the charge to second-degree murder, citing insufficient evidence to prove the “depraved heart” element required for that charge. Civil rights organizations and Owens’ family advocated strongly for a murder charge throughout the proceedings.
The trial took place in August 2024 at the Marion County Circuit Court. The jury, six persons, all white, found Lorincz guilty of Manslaughter by Use of a Firearm on August 16, 2024, after approximately 2.5 hours of deliberation. Judge Robert Hodges characterized the shooting as “entirely unnecessary”. He acknowledged Lorincz’s history as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and her clean criminal record but imposed a 25-year sentence, five years below the maximum of 30.
At sentencing, Lorincz stated: “I am so sorry I took AJ’s life. I never intended to kill her.”
Post-Conviction Developments
Lorincz filed a formal appeal to overturn her conviction in January 2025. As of late 2025, she is incarcerated at Homestead Correctional Institution in Miami-Dade County. Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lorincz and the property owner, Charles Gabbard, alleging Gabbard should have known of Lorincz’s “propensity for gross negligence and/or intentional harm”. In response, Lorincz wrote a handwritten letter to the court indicating she intends to countersue Owens’ mother, Owens’ minor children, and Gabbard for “slander, libel and defamation of character for damages exceeding $50,000”. As of late 2025, no attorney represented Lorincz in the civil matter and no hearing dates had been set.
Media & Cultural Impact
The case received national and international attention as a flashpoint in ongoing debates about Stand Your Ground laws, racial bias in self-defense claims, and the policing of Black families in shared residential spaces. The Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbor (2025), directed by Geeta Gandbhir and composed largely of police body camera footage, brought a second wave of public attention to the case after its premiere at Sundance Film Festival. Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, stated after the sentencing: “Now we can forge on the path of true healing that we so often speak about.”