Family members demanded justice at a news conference Monday after a mother of four was shot and killed through a locked door in Florida after a dispute with her neighbor.
No arrests have been made in the shooting death of Ajiki Owens, which occurred in Ocala on Friday, though Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said police know the identity of the shooter.
Woods said his office is working to define the role of the state “Stand Your Ground” Laws May play in photography. Under Florida’s “Hold It On” law, enacted in 2005, people can use deadly force if they feel their lives are in danger.
“Any time we think or imagine or think that might happen, we can’t make an arrest. The law says so specifically,” Woods said during a separate news conference on Monday. “What we have to rule out is whether or not this lethal force is justified before we can even make an arrest.”
“This is not a murder. We know who fired the shot,” Woods said. The sheriff’s office has not publicly identified the shooter.
Woods said that the police were waiting to speak with the Owens children to obtain additional information out of respect for the children and also so that the police could ensure the right people were conducting the interviews.
Woods said the accused shooter and the Owens children had been involved in some sort of feud prior to the fatal incident. From what the police have been able to determine so far, there have been ongoing arguments involving the Owens children walking in the neighbor’s garden. According to Woods, MPs have responded about six times since January 2021 to calls related to the ongoing “neighborhood dispute.”
On Friday, there was a confrontation between the children and the neighbor. Woods said the neighbor threw something at the children, injuring one of them. Ben Crump, one of the attorneys representing the Owens family, said it was an iPad, while Woods said it was a pair of skates.
Woods said: “Was something thrown at them?
Woods said Owens’ eldest child told Owens what had happened, and Owens went to a neighbor’s house to confront her. Woods admitted his office had only been able to get “one side” of the story so far, and said police believed there was “aggressive back and forth from both.”
“I wish the shooter would contact us rather than take action into her own hands,” Woods said.
“The mother of four was fatally shot after she reportedly knocked on the door of a white woman’s home to retrieve her child’s iPad. The Owens kids are believed to have accidentally left the device behind in a field where they were playing, and the woman took it,” Crump tweeted.
Speaking at a press conference Monday, Owens’ mother said the neighbor’s door was locked and remained closed during the confrontation.
“My daughter, the mother of my grandchildren, was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her,” she said. “She didn’t have a gun, she wasn’t posing any imminent threat to anyone.”
A Florida man was arrested May 27 for allegedly pointing a gun to a woman’s head after her friend briefly turned into his driveway, authorities said in nearby Flagler County. The incident was caught on video. Terry FitchAccording to prison records, the 60-year-old was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.
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