A Florida sheriff says detectives must investigate self-defense claims before any criminal charges can be brought against a white woman who fatally shot her Black neighbor last week in the violent culmination of what the sheriff described as a 2½-year feud
Neighbor Shooting Florida
Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, was killed in the Friday night shooting that Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said was the culmination of a 2½-year feud between neighbors. The women lived in the rolling hills south of Ocala, a north Florida city that is the heart of the state's horse country.
The sheriff said Owens was shot moments after going to the apartment of her neighbor, who had yelled at Owens' children as they played in a nearby lot. He also said the neighbor, who has not been identified by police, had thrown a pair of skates that hit one of the children. Lauren Smith, 40, lives across the street from where the shooting happened. She was on her porch that day and saw one of Owens' young sons pacing, and yelling, “They shot my mama, they shot my mama.”
“There was a lot of aggressiveness from both of them, back and forth,” the sheriff said the shooter told investigators. “Whether it be banging on the doors, banging on the walls and threats being made. And then at that moment is when Ms. Owens was shot through the door.”
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