Jury convicts white Florida woman of shooting her black neighbor during ongoing argument

A white Florida woman was convicted of manslaughter on Friday in connection with the fatal shooting of a black neighbor amid an ongoing dispute over children playing noisily outside her home.

An all-white jury in Ocala, Florida, found the 60-year-old Susan Lorincz after 2 1/2 hours of deliberation. Lorincz faces up to 30 years in prison when the verdict is announced.

Lorincz had claimed self-defense when she fired a single shot with a .380-caliber handgun through her front door on June 2, 2023, killing 35-year-old Ajike “AJ” Owens. Lorincz told investigators in a videotaped interview that she feared for her life as Owens screamed and pounded on her door.

“I thought I was in immediate danger,” she said in the interview.

The confrontation was the latest in a dispute between Lorincz and Owens about his children They were playing on a lawn near their two homes. Lorincz said in the interview that she was harassed for most of the three years she lived in the neighborhood.

Owens' mother, Pamela Dias, said the self-defense claim was false.

“She wanted to cause harm. She wanted to kill. And that's exactly what she did,” Dias said at a press conference outside the courtroom. “She has no respect for human life. And especially not for my family.”