Florida woman faces sentencing in fatal shooting of neighbor Ajike Owens through locked door
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(OCALA, Fla.) — Susan Lorincz, the Florida woman who was found guilty of first-degree felony manslaughter with a firearm in August, is set to be sentenced on Monday for fatally shooting her neighbor, Ajike “AJ” Owens, through a locked door in an incident that occurred on June 2, 2023, in Ocala.
She is facing up to 30 years in prison.
Lorincz, who is white, shot Owens, a Black mother of four, in the presence of her now 10-year-old son after Owens went to speak with Lorincz following a dispute over Owens’ children playing near Lorincz’s home, according to a June 6, 2023, statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO).
After a jury found Lorincz guilty on Aug. 16, Judge Robert Hodges said that Lorincz would be held in the Marion County jail without bond until her sentencing.
Ahead of Lorincz’s sentencing hearing, Owens’ family shared a statement on Wednesday with ABC News that they released through their attorney, calling for the judge to sentence the Florida woman to “the maximum penalty under the law.”
Owens’ family said that while the guilty verdict was an “ important step,” they are still seeking “justice.”
“While no sentence can ever restore the life taken from us, the court’s decision will send a strong message about the value of Ajike’s life and the importance of justice for victims of senseless violence,” the family said. “We are hopeful that the presiding judge will honor the jury’s decision and deliver a sentence that reflects the severity of this crime.”
Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, who previously told ABC News that the guilty verdict brings a “sense of peace” to the family, said in a statement on Wednesday that Lorincz’s sentencing is an opportunity for the family to “find some closure.”
“While the pain of losing Ajike will never go away, we are hopeful that justice will prevail and that the court will give Susan Lorincz the maximum penalty for her actions,” Dias said. “Ajike’s legacy will live on in her children, and we will continue to fight for justice, love, and peace in her name.”
A spokesperson for the family told ABC News that they plan to be in court on Monday to attend Lorincz’s sentencing hearing.
Lorincz’s attorney Amanda Sizemore declined to comment in response to a request from ABC News.
Lorincz pleaded not guilty and during the trial her defense team argued that she should be found not guilty because she was acting in self-defense because she feared for her life. Meanwhile, prosecutors argued that Lorincz should be found guilty because she fatally shot an “unarmed” Owens through a “locked” door.
(MADISON, WI) — Police are investigating the online footprint of 15-year-old Abundant Life Christian School shooting suspect Natalie Rupnow — who went by Samantha — as they piece together the course of events that left three people dead, Rupnow among them.
Meanwhile, numerous schools in the Madison Metropolitan School District “were targeted by false threats often known as swatting” Tuesday, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told reporters at a news conference.
Police are investigating, Barnes said, and he noted authorities do not believe there are any current threats. “Making false threats is a crime, and we are working with the district attorney,” he said.
Barnes said police are still working to establish a motive for Monday’s deadly shooting, suggesting there were multiple factors.
Police are talking to students to determine if bullying was one, he said. “Everyone was targeted in this incident and everyone was put in equal danger,” Barnes added.
Barnes said police are also investigating Rupnow’s online activity. The police chief urged anyone who knew her or had insights into her feelings to call Madison Area Crime Stoppers at 608-266-6014.
One teacher and one student were killed in the Monday morning shooting, which took place inside a classroom during a study hall “full of students from multiple grade levels.”
Two other students remain in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. Three students and a teacher suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Rupnow died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before law enforcement arrived, police said. Officers did not fire their weapons.
Rupnow’s parents are cooperating with the investigation, Barnes told ABC News on Tuesday.
“They were cooperative. Despite this tragedy, they still lost a child. They still lost a member of their family,” Barnes said.
“It is certain that they have probably more questions than anyone because they knew her,” he said. “They lived with her and so we wanted to get an account from them of what kind of child she was.”
Her father is being questioned by investigators, Barnes said. He said he didn’t know whether the mother had been questioned, noting that she’s been out of town.
A candlelight vigil was held Tuesday night at the state capitol for the victims of the shooting.
“Yesterday, the Madison community experienced a terrible and traumatic event,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said at the vigil. “We will never be the same, but we will get through this. And we will get through this together by relying on each other and taking care of each other.”
The victims have not been publicly identified. Rhodes-Conway told reporters during the news conference that they are respecting the privacy of the victims’ families and will “share what we can when we can and not before that.”
“Let them grieve. Let them recover. Let them heal,” she said.
Students in kindergarten through 12th grade attend the Christian school.
“I was in the hallway, and I was changing from my shoes to my boots to go to lunch because I have recess after, but then I heard the shooting and screams,” a girl in second-grade told Chicago ABC station WLS.
James Smith told ABC News his 17-year-old daughter was in physics class at the time gunshots rang out two classrooms away. She wasn’t hurt.
Smith said Abundant Life Christian School welcomes students who may have been bullied or had a tough time at other schools.
“We, as a school, desire to help those who are having troubles, to be able to provide a safe space for them to grow, at the same time balance across a safe space for the rest of our student body,” he said.
Smith also said the school’s population grew dramatically post-pandemic as many parents sought an alternative to public schools.
In the wake of Monday’s shooting, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are urging elected officials to combat gun violence.
Biden in a statement called the shooting “shocking and unconscionable,” and he mentioned his administration’s efforts to combat the gun violence epidemic in the U.S., including the implementation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
Biden asked Congress to pass “commonsense” gun safety laws, including universal background checks, a national red flag law and a ban on both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“It is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence,” Biden said, adding, “We cannot continue to accept it as normal.”
“It’s another school shooting, another community being torn about and torn apart by gun violence,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in remarks Tuesday. “And of course, our nation mourns for those who were killed, and we pray for the recovery of those who are injured and for the entire community.”
Harris, who played a role in the Biden administration’s efforts to combat gun violence, stressed, “We as a nation must renew our commitment to end the horror of gun violence, both mass shootings and everyday gun violence that touches so many communities in our nation.”
“We must end it, and we must be committed to have the courage to know that solutions are in hand, but we need elected leaders to have the courage to step up and do the right thing,” she said.
ABC News’ Alex Perez, Briana Stewart and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — Hannah Kobayashi, a Hawaiian woman who has been missing for weeks, walked freely into Mexico just after noon on Nov. 12, the Los Angeles Police Department said on Monday.
The department said the case has been recategorized as a “voluntary missing persons” one and has been closed. Detectives said they believe she wanted to disappear.
The update comes after weeks of claims from family and friends that Kobayashi had been kidnapped and was in danger after she disappeared before boarding her connecting at Los Angeles International Airport in early November. She was heading from Hawaii to New York.
Kobayashi, 30, used her passport to buy a train ticket from L.A.’s Union Station to the San Ysidro point of entry, and from there walked into Mexico alone and with her luggage, police said.
Despite claims to the contrary from family, the LAPD said their evidence appeared to show that Kobayashi voluntarily did not board her flight to New York, that she had her airline give her bags to her in L.A. and that she roamed around L.A. before voluntarily heading to Mexico.
She also expressed a desire to disconnect from modern technology before she went off grid, police said on Monday. Detectives traveled to the border to look at surveillance video, which they said showed the woman crossing the border.
Kobayashi’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, died last month at a parking garage near LAX, after traveling to California from Hawaii to search for his daughter, according to the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s office.
LAPD authorities asked that Kobayashi contact her family from Mexico to let them she is OK. The department said it would try to contact Kobayashi if Customs and Border Protection alert the force that the Hawaiian native has reentered the United States.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of Amazon workers at the company’s first-ever unionized warehouse voted to authorize a strike on Friday, claiming the tech giant has refused to recognize the union and negotiate a contract at the New York City facility.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union representing roughly 5,500 workers at the warehouse, said Amazon risks a strike if it does not begin negotiations by Sunday.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien told ABC News in a statement. “If these white-collar criminals want to keep breaking the law, they better get ready for a fight.”
A strike authorization vote affords union leadership the ability to declare a work stoppage if deemed appropriate. But the vote does not guarantee that a strike will take place.
The headline-grabbing union victory at the Amazon facility in Staten Island, New York, in 2022, accelerated an upsurge of labor organizing that took hold nationwide during the pandemic.
After the union victory, however, Amazon filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, seeking to overturn the outcome, including allegations that NLRB officials showed a favorable bias toward the workers and that union leaders bribed colleagues in an effort to win their support.
So far, those legal challenges by Amazon have failed to overturn the union win. Months after the victory, a hearing officer for the NLRB recommended that the vote should stand. Soon afterward, the NLRB officially certified the union representing workers at the facility, putting Amazon under a legal obligation to bargain in good faith. Amazon appealed the ruling.
Workers have alleged that the company’s legal challenge amounts to an illegal effort to delay contract negotiations.
Amazon did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. In a previous statement to ABC News, Amazon Spokesperson Eileen Hards said the company respects workers’ right to unionize but it contests the results of the election at the Staten Island warehouse, also known as JFK8.
“Our employees have the choice of whether or not to join a union,” Hards said. “They always have.”
“We strongly disagree with the outcome, and as we showed throughout the JFK8 Objections Hearing with dozens of witnesses and hundreds of pages of documents, both the NLRB and the ALU improperly influenced the outcome of the election and we don’t believe it represents what the majority of our team wants,” she added.
Workers at the facility previously said a union contract should include minimum pay of $30 per hour and bolstered safety protections.
A delay is typical for a first union contract, but the passage of time in this case has extended beyond the norm.
The average length of time before a new union signs its first contract is 465 days, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis in 2022. Nearly 990 days have passed since Amazon workers in New York City voted to unionize the facility.
On Friday, the Teamsters said workers at a second facility in Queens had also voted to authorize a strike.
“Driving for Amazon is tough,” Luc Rene, a worker at the Queens facility, said in a statement. “What’s even tougher is fighting a mega-corporation that constantly breaks the law and games the system. But we won’t give up.”
