On the morning of Friday, 2 June, 2023, Ajike Owens did something very normal – she knocked on her neighbour’s door. Her son had come home and said that the 58-year-old woman who lived nearby, named Susan Lorincz, had shouted and thrown items at his younger brother for playing on their shared grass area. Owens, a mother of four, crossed the street to speak to Lorincz and find out what had happened. But without answering her calls, Lorincz shot Owens through her front door, leaving her to die in the street. She was just 35.
This sounds like murder. But this is also America, where “Stand Your Ground” laws apply in more than half of US states. And that includes Florida, where Owens and Lorincz lived in the city of Ocala. The law states that people may use deadly force when they reasonably believe it to be necessary, in order to defend against certain violent crimes or in self-defence. Lorincz said she believed Owens had come to her house that night to kill her. “I don’t even actually remember picking up the gun,” she told investigating officers afterwards. “I just remember shooting.”
