United States: an American woman is arrested four days after killing her black neighbor

Susan Lorincz is charged with manslaughter and faces 30 years in prison, said Marion County Sheriff's Department, which was slow to arrest the suspect due to a controversial law in force in this southeastern state.

On Friday night, the 58-year-old woman shot and killed Ajike Owens, 35, in a long-running dispute over the latter's four children, according to their statement.

This day There, they were playing at a field near Susan Lorincz's home in Ocala. According to a witness, she yelled at them before throwing a roller skate, which hit one of the boys. His 12-year-old brother then rang the doorbell of this neighbor who chased him away with an umbrella.

He complained to his mother who, in turn, went to the 50-year-old, knocking on her door and asking her to leave. Instead, it shot through. Ajike Owens was fatally shot in the chest in front of her 10-year-old son.

It took four days to arrest the shooter because she invoked a so-called “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows a person to use lethal force in the event of imminent danger, even if there is another possibility of escaping it, for example by stepping back.

Susan Lorincz had assured that her neighbor had tried to force her door, and that she had already attacked her in the past.

After having collected testimonies, CCTV images and other elements, “investigators were able to establish that Ms. Lorincz's actions were not justifiable under Florida law,” the sheriff's department said.

Lawyers for the family of Ajike Owens , who had been calling for his arrest since Friday, said they were relieved. “We are nonetheless concerned that it has taken so long for her to be held accountable,” added Me Ben Crump and Anthony Thomas in a press release.

A law “Stand Your Ground” had already slowed the prosecution of an octogenarian from Missouri who in April shot a black teenager who mistakenly rang his doorbell, they recalled, calling for the eradication of these archaic laws that “ disproportionately maim and kill people of color.”