Interrogation Video Released in Susan Lorincz Case
A newly released interrogation video shows Florida woman Susan Lorincz telling detectives she heard her neighbor threaten to kill her before Lorincz was arrested for fatally shooting the woman through a closed door during a dispute over children playing outside last year.
Lorincz, a 58-year-old White woman, is charged with manslaughter with a firearm and assault for the June 2, 2023, shooting of her Black neighbor, Ajike “AJ” Owens. Owens had been knocking on Lorincz’s door when the incident occurred. Investigators stated that Lorincz became angry because several neighborhood children, including Owens’ children, were playing near her home.
In the video, released Monday by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Lorincz repeatedly tells two detectives during the nearly two-hour-long interrogation that she feared for her life and recalled Owens saying, “I’m gonna kill you.”
“I just remember being terrified that she was banging and screaming and just, I just remember hearing her say, ‘I’m going to kill you,'” Lorincz told detectives, as also described in the affidavit in the case.
“I was in fear for my life. I mean, honest to God, I just feared that she was going to come through that door. I’m sorry. That’s how I felt. I can’t change the way I felt. I mean, it was sheer terror on my part,” Lorincz added.
Detectives informed Lorincz that no one they had interviewed had mentioned Owens saying she wanted to kill Lorincz.
“These people said that she was saying to come outside,” one detective told Lorincz. “She wanted to confront you about something, she wanted you to come outside.”
The Owens family previously told CNN that Lorincz harassed Owens and her children and used racial slurs toward them before the killing. Lorincz admitted to using racial slurs against neighborhood children in the past, according to an arrest affidavit.
The video also depicts detectives asking Lorincz if she had researched Florida laws on self-defense and “stand your ground,” to which she responded that she had looked into the topic earlier in the day after seeing it mentioned on Facebook.
“I know what you’re thinking – that I looked at the laws so I could do something. No,” Lorincz told detectives.
Before arresting Lorincz, detectives explained that her actions on the day of the shooting did not appear reasonable.
“From everything I’ve seen, it doesn’t rise to the level for you to justify shooting through a closed door and with a firearm, OK. And I think you know that that wasn’t reasonable what you did,” one of the detectives said, questioning why the shot that killed Owens was fired only two minutes after Lorincz had finished speaking with a dispatcher while calling 911 and requesting police.
“Two minutes – to me it was much longer,” Lorincz said.
At the end of the interrogation, the video shows Lorincz being given the opportunity to write a note to Owens’ children, which she did while waiting for deputies to return.
When deputies returned to take Lorincz to jail, the video shows she initially refused arrest, repeatedly saying “I can’t do this,” and exclaiming “I don’t care. Kill me!” She eventually stood up and was handcuffed.
Jury selection in Lorincz’s case is scheduled to begin on June 17, according to court records. CNN has reached out to Lorincz’s attorney, Amanda Sizemore, for comment.