Ajike 'AJ' Owens shot through door in Ocala; family demands arrest

Calls are growing for an arrest to be made in Florida after a Black mother of four was shot and killed by her White neighbor through the neighbor's door — apparently over a dispute involving the victim's children.

The neighbor had reportedly thrown roller skates at the children Friday, after which their mother knocked on the neighbor's door to confront her about "harming the children," according to a police report. The neighbor allegedly fired a gun from behind the door, hitting the mother.

Officials identified the victim as Ajike S. Owens, 35, also known as "AJ." They said the suspect is a 58-year-old White woman, whom they did not identify.

No charges have been filed in the case, and the county sheriff said his office could not make an arrest in the shooting until authorities determined whether the use of force had been justified under Florida's "stand your ground" law. The law states that a person can use deadly force if they reasonably believe it could "prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another."

Lawyers representing Owens's family said the shooting was "unjustified" and alleged that the shooter had used racist language against Owens's children. Racial dynamics were at play, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing members of Owens's family, said in a statement calling for the alleged shooter's arrest. Some Florida Democrats also called for the woman to be charged Tuesday.

Around 9 p.m. Friday, deputies received a call about possible trespassing at a property in Ocala, Fla., about 40 miles south of Gainesville, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said Monday during a news conference. When the officers arrived, they found a woman suffering from a gunshot wound, Woods said. They tried to save her but she later died, Woods said, calling it a "tragic" incident.

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Owens's children "were playing in a field next to an Ocala apartment complex" Friday "when an unidentified 58-year-old white woman reportedly began yelling at them to get off her land and calling them racial slurs," according to Crump's statement.

Child witnesses told police that a dispute ensued over the children's tablet and said the woman had "thrown roller skates at the juveniles," according to the police report.

According to Crump, Owens's children left the area after the altercation but "accidentally left an iPad behind, which the woman took. When one of the children went to her residence to retrieve it, she threw it, hitting the boy and cracking the screen."

The police report did not confirm that the woman had thrown an iPad. Woods, when asked Monday about parts of Crump's statement, said he could not yet confirm or deny the allegations, including what was thrown by the neighbor and whether it was directly at the children.

Having heard about the dispute, Owens went to confront her neighbor "about striking [redacted name] with a pair of skates," a witness told police, Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Ashton Welfenberg wrote in the police report.

People at the scene told police that Owens had begun knocking on her neighbor's door when a weapon was fired from within the home. Bullets went through the front door and hit Owens.

Owens staggered back and collapsed beneath a tree, calling 911 as she did, according to the police report. When police arrived, people were gathered around her, trying to give her medical aid.

They began "screaming that the shooter was inside of the residence," Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Stringer wrote in a report.

The alleged shooter stayed in her house until police arrived and took her into custody, according to their report. She has not been arrested but could be charged with homicide, the report noted.

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Owens's mother, Pamela Dias, said in an interview with MSNBC's Joy Reid that her daughter did what "any parent would do" in confronting the neighbor. "She simply knocked on the door. The woman shot her through the closed door, with her son, 9 years old, standing next to her," Dias said.

She said Owens was unarmed. The sheriff's office said this had not been confirmed.

Woods, the sheriff, citing information from the alleged shooter, said "there was a lot of aggressiveness" at the door from both neighbors, "whether it be banging on the doors, banging on the walls and threats being made."

Friday's incident appeared to have been tied to "a neighborhood feud over time," Woods added.

Calls for the woman's arrest grew Tuesday as the sheriff's office said it was continuing to investigate. In a statement, Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) argued that the case showed it was "long past time" to repeal the state's stand-your-ground law.

"If the shooter feared for her life as she hid within her home, then she should have called the police. Instead, she decided to fire her weapon through the door, killing AJ in front of her children," Jones said. "This is nothing short of murder and the shooter should be charged as such."

The sheriff's office said the investigation had been delayed because Owens's children, at least two of whom may have witnessed the shooting, could not be interviewed until Monday because of the trauma of their mother's death.

"A lot of the rumors and questions out there have been that we’re not doing anything or we’re not moving fast enough," Woods said. "[B]ecause we want to seek justice and we want to ensure that we get the facts right — especially in a case to this level — we just don't take always one side, because it doesn't always paint the full picture."

Police collected two firearms, bullets and other evidence at the scene, the report showed. Many details of the report were redacted by the sheriff's office.

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In the past two years, sheriff's deputies had received six to eight calls relating to the property where Friday's shooting took place, Woods said.

"I wish our shooter would have called us instead of taking actions into her own hands. I wish Mrs. Owens would have called us, in hopes we could have never got to the point in which we are here today," he said.

An online fundraiser for Owens's children and her memorial expenses had raised more than $70,000 Tuesday morning. The fundraiser, launched by Owens's mother and verified by GoFundMe, called Owens "a devoted and loving mother of four" with an "infectious personality" and "a smile that would light up the room."