Why Is ‘Stand Your Ground’ Being Considered In Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens’ Case When She Was Shot Through A Door?

Ajike “AJ” Owens. | Source: Ben Crump

Here’s a question: Why is it so easy for law enforcement to believe white people’s self-defense claims, particularly, after they’ve shot and/or killed a Black person?

It took more than two months for anyone to be arrested for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery because multiple legal officials in Georgia declined to prosecute or even pay any mind to his killing, and a prosecutor at the time even advised that officers decline to arrest the men who would go on to be convicted of Arberys murder.

Kansas City, Missouri, resident Andrew Lester was initially detained and then released after shooting 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, who had gone to the wrong house to pick up his brothers because legal officials entertained the idea that Lester might be justified for shooting someone he claims he thought was trying to break in his house, despite Lester admitting he was first alerted when Yarl rang the doorbell.

Trayvon Martin‘s killer ultimately went free because of how easy it is for America to imagine a shooter being a victim of violence before he shot and killed the Black teen he had literally been stalking around a neighborhood.

And in the case of Ajike “AJ” Owens, who was shot and killed in Ocala, Florida, Friday night, it just seems really odd that Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law is being considered when law enforcement knows that Owens’ killer allegedly shot the Black mother of four through her front door.

The 58-year-old white woman who shot Owens still hasn’t been identified by officials—though she was, apparently, identified via social media as Ocala resident Susan Lorincz—but on Monday, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods did confirm that Owens and her killer had been in an ongoing dispute over Owens’ children, who the shooter is accused of hurling racial slurs at and physically attacking.

In fact, according to the Washington Post, a police report authored by Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy Ashton Welfenberg stated that there was a dispute over the children’s tablet and that witnesses said the woman had “thrown roller skates at the juveniles.” Civil attorney Ben Crump’s office said in a statement that the children had come back to the woman’s residence to retreive an iPad one of them left near her property, and that the woman threw it at one of the children, but the police could not confirm whether that happened.

Welfenberg’s report confirmed that Owens went to her killer’s residence to confront her “about harming the children.” The report goes on to state explicitly that Owens “knocked on the door, and at that point, the woman allegedly shot through the door, hitting AJ, who later died from her injuries.”

This would be a good time to mention that the shooter, who, again, has yet to even be formally identified, has not been arrested or charged with a crime as of yet either.

So, here’s another question:

WTF?

Look, I’m no legal expert, and I’m certainly not someone anyone would consult on the subject of the anti-Black, critical race theory propaganda-obsessed justice evaporator that is Florida Law—but it is just really difficult for me to comprehend how “stand your ground” is being considered when an armed person shot and killed a person through a closed door. It’s quite confounding but qu-white typical all the same.

Even Sheriff Woods, who addressed and denied “concerns” that his office “wasn’t doing anything” or “wasn’t moving fast enough,” appears to believe both the shooter and victim share blame in an incident where only one party took a life.

From the Post:

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.

Woods, 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.”

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.

Again—WTF?

First of all, for an officer of the law to characterize Owens’ violent killing as a tragic “two wrongs don’t make a right” situation, despite the fact that only one party has been accused of violence—both at children and in regards to the fatal shooting of their mother—is beyond deplorable and a picture-perfect example of how white privilege operates. (If only there were some kind of decades-old critical and theoretical study examining structural racial bias in American systems including, but not limited to, our justice system. If only such a thing existed and was embraced in the state of Florida.)

Secondly, what parent is not going to immediately confront an adult who their children said verbally and physically attacked them? That’s not an act of “taking actions into her own hands,” that’s Owens doing exactly what any parent would be expected to do in that situation. Why the hell would Owens call the cops first before even confirming any of what happened by confronting the other adult involved?

Oh yeah—and also, OWENS DIDN’T KILL ANYONE!!!

So, basically, Woods wishes Owens hadn’t had a parent’s natural and most common reaction to someone harming their children, and he also wishes the other woman hadn’t committed the absolutely heinous and logically indefensible violent act of killing Owens (allegedly in front of her children) in response.

And, obviously, those two offenses are the same. There were very fine people on both sides, amirite?

“She simply knocked on the door. The woman shot her through the closed door, with her son, 9 years old, standing next to her,” Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, said in an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid.

Who Killed Ajike Owens? Allegedly Racist White Florida Woman Identified On Social Media As Susan Lorincz

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