Woman Who Fatally Shot Black Neighbor Through Locked Door After Complaining About Her Kids Is Sentenced to 25 Years

Susan Lorincz, the White woman who was previously found guilty of fatally shooting her Black neighbor Ajike “AJ” Owens through a locked door in Florida, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. 

On Monday, Nov. 25, Judge Robert Hodges called the crime “completely unnecessary” at the sentencing hearing, where Lorincz, 60, was facing a 30-year sentence for the June 2023 death of the 35-year-old mom of four. 

“I find that the shooting was completely unnecessary,” the judge said at court in Ocala, Fla., as reported by ABC News. “In this case, Ms. Lorincz was behind the door. The door was locked. She had already called law enforcement. They were en route. She knew they were en route.”

“She was in a relatively safe position,” the judge continued. “For some reason, she went into her room and found a gun. She could have stayed in the room and put another locked door between her and Ms. Owens, but she came back out, put herself in front of the door, and at the time she fired the gun through the door, she was safe.”

“There was no indication that she did not understand what she was doing, [or] that shooting a person was against the law,” Hodges added.

Lorincz’s attorney offered no comment to PEOPLE. 

At the time of the shooting, Lorincz told a 911 dispatcher she felt “threatened” and was “fearing for my life” at her Ocala home following a dispute with neighborhood children. She also told the dispatcher that none of the minors — several neighborhood kids, including Owens’ children — had any firearms. 

“Just screaming, yelling, just being absolutely obnoxious,” Lorincz said, according to the 911 tape obtained by PEOPLE. “I went and threw the roller skate over to the other side, the kid says he’s going to beat me up for that, and he’s mouthing off to me. I feel threatened in my own home.”

Asked if the child was still present, Lorincz responded: “There are several kids out there right now,” she said. “I’m fearing for my life. I’m very scared.”

Soon after, Owens knocked on Lorincz’s apartment door to ask about the skates being thrown at her children. When she did, Lorincz shot through the door and killed Owens in front of Owens’ now 10-year-old son.

“I am so sorry I took AJ’s life. I never intended to kill her,” Lorincz said in court on Monday, per CNN. 

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Her defense previously cited Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which allows people to use deadly force without retreating if they are: lawfully present, perceiving an imminent threat and not engaged in criminal activity.

“I stand before you not only mourning the loss of my daughter, but also the loss of our hopes, dreams and the future that we often spoke of,” Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said Monday. “Our plans and promises to one another as mother and daughter will never come to light. They all died the night Susan Lorincz killed my daughter.”