Sheriff probes 'self defense' claim of white woman who fatally shot Black neighbor in front of kids

Authorities can’t charge a white woman who fatally shot her Black neighbor last week unless detectives can prove that she did not act in self-defense, a Florida sheriff said Tuesday.

A 35-year-old mother of four, Ajike Owens, 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 a neighborhood in north Florida, in the rolling hills south of Ocala, known as the state's horse country. On Tuesday, a stuffed teddy bear and bouquets of flowers marked the area near where Owens was shot. Nearby, children were riding bikes and scooters, and playing basketball.

About three dozen mostly Black protesters gathered Tuesday afternoon outside the Marion County Judicial Center to demand that Owens’ shooter be arrested. They chanted “No justice, no peace” and “A.J. A.J. A.J” using Owens’ nickname. They carried signs saying: “Say her name Ajike Owens” and “It’s about us.” There was no violence during the protest, which included a number of small children.

The sheriff said she was shot moments after going to the apartment of her neighbor, who had yelled at Owens' children as they played in a nearby lot. Woods said the woman had also thrown a pair of skates that hit one of the children.

Deputies responding to a trespassing call at the apartment Friday night found Owens suffering from gunshot wounds. She later died at a hospital in Ocala.

Before the confrontation, the shooter had been yelling racial slurs at the children, according to a statement from civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Owens’ family — and represented Trayvon Martin's family in 2012. The sheriff’s office hasn’t confirmed there were slurs uttered or said whether race was a factor in the shooting.

Lauren Smith, 40, lives across the street from where the shooting happened. She was on her porch that day and saw one of the Owens' young sons pacing, and yelling, “They shot my mama, they shot my mama.”

She ran toward the house, and started chest compressions until a rescue crew arrived. She said there wasn't an altercation and that Owens didn't have a weapon.

“She was angry all the time that the children were playing out there,” Smith said. “She would say nasty things to them. Just nasty.”

Smith, who is white, said the neighborhood is “family friendly” and the fact that the shooter is claiming self-defense is "outrageous.”

“I wish our shooter would have called us instead of taking actions into her own hands,” Woods said. “I wish Ms. Owens would have called us in the hopes we could have never gotten to the point at which we are here today.”

The sheriff said that since January 2021, deputies responded at least a half-dozen times in connection with the feuding between Owens and the woman who shot her.

“I'm absolutely heart broken,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, told The Associated Press. She described the fatal shooting as “so senseless.”

Ferrell-Zabala said “stand your ground” cases, which she refers to as “shoot first laws," are deemed justifiable five times more frequently when a white shooter kills a Black victim.

“We've seen this again and again across this country,” she said, adding that “it's really because of lax gun laws and a culture of shoot first.”

In fact, stand your ground and “castle doctrine" cases — which allow residents to defend themselves either by law or court precedent when threatened — have sparked outrage amid a spate of shootings across the country.

In April, 84-year-old Andrew Lester, a white man, shot and injured 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who rang his doorbell in Kansas City after mistakenly showing up at the wrong house to pick up his younger siblings.

Lester faces charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action; at trial, he may argue that he thought someone was trying to break into his house, as he told police.

Missouri and Florida are among about 30 states that have stand your ground laws.

One of the most well-known examples of the stand your ground argument came up in the trial of George Zimmerman, a white man who fatally shot Florida teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

Zimmerman, who had a white father and Hispanic mother, told police that Martin, who was Black, attacked him, forcing him to use his gun in self-defense. He was allowed to go free, but was arrested about six weeks later, after Martin’s parents questioned his version of events and then-Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor.

Before trial, Zimmerman's attorneys chose not to pursue a stand your ground claim, which could have resulted in the dismissal of murder changes as well as immunity from prosecution. But during the trial, the law was essentially used as part of his self-defense argument. Jurors found him not guilty.

Since Zimmerman's trial, Crump has become outspoken on cases of gun violence.

Woods was joined at his news conference by community leaders and a local attorney retained by the family, Anthony Thomas. Their singular message was a call for patience while the sheriff’s office conducted its investigation.

Woods also said Monday they haven’t interviewed Owens’ children, two of whom witnessed the shooting, because investigators first want child therapists to work with them. Most of the information the deputies have is coming from the shooter, Woods said.

“There was a lot of aggressiveness from both of them, back and forth,” Wood 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.”

During a vigil with the family later Monday, Thomas said the sheriff had promised him the most professional service that he and his deputies could provide, and Thomas plans to hold the agency to that.

During the same gathering, Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said that she was seeking justice for her daughter and her grandchildren.

“My daughter, my grandchildren’s mother, was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her,” Dias said. “She had no weapon. She posed no imminent threat to anyone.”

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Associated Press writer Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale contributed to this report.