The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has revealed that the deadly shooting of a mother of four, who was killed in front of at least one of her children, is the result of a long-standing “neighborhood feud” with a white woman who racially harassed her kids.
As of now, a 58-year-old white woman has not been arrested for the shooting that claimed the life of 35-year-old Ajike “AJ” Owens on June 2 in Ocala, Florida. Deputies responded to a trespassing call and a shooting that evening in the 1600 block of SW 108th Lane, where they found Owens wounded. They provided assistance until medics arrived and transported her to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
The identity of the woman who shot Owens remains unknown at this time.
According to civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, the events leading up to the shooting involved racial harassment and physical harm inflicted by the woman who shot Owens.
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On that Friday, Owens’ children were playing in a field near an apartment complex when a white woman reportedly began shouting at them to leave her property, using racial slurs against them. Although the children left, they realized they had left an iPad in the field, which the woman confiscated. When one of the children went to retrieve it from her home, she threw it, hitting the boy in the head and causing the screen to crack.
Upon learning what had transpired, Owens crossed the street to the woman’s residence and knocked on her door. After a brief argument, the woman allegedly shot Owens through the door, with her 9-year-old son and possibly another child present as witnesses.
“There was a lot of aggressiveness from both of them, back and forth,” Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said the shooter told investigators. “Whether it be banging on…
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