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White woman claims she fatally shot Black neighbor out of fear, while victim’s mother says “she set out to kill”
A White woman in Florida told investigators she fired a shot through her door at a Black neighbor because she panicked as the other woman pounded heavily on her door and threatened her amid an ongoing dispute over the neighbor’s children, according to a video statement played in court Wednesday.
The mother of the woman who was fatally shot disputed that, telling reporters at a news conference that the suspect, Susan Lorincz, was not in fear for her own life but was intent on harming Ajike “A.J.” Owens on June 2, 2023, in Ocala, Florida.
Lorincz is on trial for manslaughter in the shooting.
“She set out to cause harm. She set out to kill. That’s exactly what she did,” said Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias. “She has no regard for any form of human life. Certainly, not my family.”
Doug Engle/Ocala Star-Banner via AP, Pool
An all-White, six-person jury with two alternates was seated Monday to hear the evidence, according to the Marion County court clerk. The trial is expected to last all week.
In a recorded interview with Marion County detectives the day of the shooting, Lorincz insisted repeatedly she was in fear for her life as Owens — who weighed about 290 pounds, according to an autopsy — pounded on her door and yelled at her. The confrontation happened after Lorincz allegedly threw skates and an umbrella at Owens’ children as they played outside. Lorincz denied throwing anything at the kids.
“Was your goal to shoot and kill her?” a detective asked Lorincz, CBS affiliate WKMG-TV reported.
“No,” she replied.
“What was your goal?”
“To shoot and hopefully, you know, she’ll hear the shot and dissipate,” Lorincz said.
She said she fired a single shot with her .380-caliber handgun through the door, striking Owens in the chest. Lorincz said she could not see who was outside the door but was just trying to get Owens to “go away.” Owens, 35, was not armed.
Jurors saw measurements from inside Lorincz’s home, WKMG-TV reported. Prosecutors say those measurements prove Lorincz was not in her kitchen when she pulled the trigger.
“I was never intending to kill. I was shaking. I was just so distraught at that point in time,” Lorincz said in the interview. “I felt like I was in mortal danger.”
The shooting was the final act in a dispute between Owens, her children and Lorincz over their playing in a grassy area near both of their homes. In the video statement, Lorincz said she felt harassed by the children for most of the three years she had lived there.
“Every time they see me, they get together and scream and yell,” Lorincz said, denying accusations that she used racial slurs against the children.
John Raoux / AP
Lorincz, 60, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter. She said the frequent confrontations with Owens and her children led her to jam a chair against the door as protection at night.
State Attorney William Gladson has said his office contemplated filing a second-degree murder charge but that prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence that Lorincz had “hatred, spite, ill will or evil intent” toward Owens. Lorincz also was not charged immediately in the case, leading to protests at the courthouse.
Ocala is about 80 miles northwest of Orlando in central Florida.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
