Ajike “AJ” Owens; her family and friends at a Monday vigil; and the Florida home where she was fatally shot (YouTube screenshots)
A Black 35-year-old single mother of four was shot dead in front of her 9-year-old son by her white neighbor in Florida last week in what local authorities say was the violent culmination of a multi-year feud amid allegations that the shooter was motivated by racial animus.
The death of Ajike “AJ” Owens, who was allegedly standing on her neighbor’s porch after knocking when she was fatally shot through the other woman’s front door, has led to calls for the shooter’s arrest and reignited the controversy surrounding Florida’s “stand your ground” law.
According to Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods, deputies at about 9 p.m. on Friday, June 2 responded to a call regarding alleged trespassing at an apartment complex located in the 1600 block of SW 108th Lane in Ocala, about 70 miles northwest of Orlando. While en route to the address, deputies learned that there had been shots fired and upon arriving at the scene they located an adult female victim — later identified as Owens — suffering from a gunshot wound and immediately began rendering aid until medics could reach the area. Unfortunately, she succumbed to her wound and was pronounced dead.
Prior to the shooting, the children of the victim were playing in a field near their home when the shooter — who has not been charged, arrested, or identified — yelled at them to “get off her land” and called them “racial slurs,” attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Owens’ family said in a press release.
“The children left but accidentally left an iPad behind, which [the neighbor] took. When one of the children went to her residence to retrieve it, she threw [the iPad], hitting the boy and cracking the screen,” the release states. “After AJ’s children informed her of what happened, she walked across the street with her kids to speak with the woman. She knocked on the door, and at that point, the woman allegedly shot through the door, hitting AJ, who later died from her injuries.”
During a Monday press conference, Sheriff Woods said investigators had not yet confirmed whether the neighbor took an iPad belonging to the children nor whether she later threw and broke the device. However, he did say that earlier on the day of the shooting, the neighbor threw a pair of skates at the children that may have struck one of them and likely added to the hostility between Owens and the shooter.
“Somebody threw something at my child, I’d be pissed off. What parent wouldn’t be? Who wouldn’t be upset at that, regardless of whether they intentionally threw it at them or not?” Sheriff Woods said. “I wish our shooter would have called us instead of taking actions into our own hands. I wish Mrs Owens had called us in the hopes we could have never got to the point in which we are here today.”
The sheriff said that when Owens confronted the neighbor on her porch there was “a lot of aggressiveness from both of them, back and forth, whether it be banging on the doors, banging on the walls and threats being made.”
“And then, at that moment, it’s when Mrs Owens was shot through the door,” he added.
Woods urged the public to stay patient as investigators continue in their effort to get a complete picture of what happened that led to the tragic encounter, noting that Owens’ own children will play a pivotal role.
“We’re not cold-hearted bastards, we’re not going to interview children the night they possibly witnessed their mother being killed. We’re going to wait,” he said. “We have to rely on professionals and expert counselors to sit down with them, [but] I’m here to assure the family and the friends that my office is going to do everything to bring justice.”
The sheriff also pointed to Florida’s stand-your-ground law, which he said prevents any arrests until certain aspects about the circumstances of the shooting can be determined. The law allows individuals who believe their lives are in imminent danger to defend themselves with deadly force without requiring any attempt to flee.
“That law has specific instructions for us and law enforcement, and any time that we think or perceive or believe that might come into play, we cannot make an arrest,” Woods said. “The law specifically says that, and what we have to rule out is whether the deadly force was justified or not before we can even make the arrest.”
During a Monday vigil, Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said there was no way the neighbor — who she claimed regularly called her grandchildren the “n-word” and “slaves” — believed her life was in danger when she fired at Owens.
“The mother, the protector of her children, she wanted to know why this happened. A closed, locked door. The door never opened,” Dias said. “My daughter, my grandchildren’s mother, was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her. She had no weapon. She posed no imminent threat to anyone.”