A woman has been taken into custody in connection with the death of Ajike "AJ" Owens, the mother who authorities say was fatally shot last week in central Florida after knocking on a neighbor's door, a sheriff's office spokesperson said.
The woman was taken into custody Tuesday night, Marion County sheriff's spokesperson Valerie Strong said. It is unclear whether the woman was formally arrested or charged.
Authorities say Owens was shot through the door of her neighbor's home near Ocala, Florida, on Friday. Owens' family and attorneys have demanded that her killer be arrested and charged. Her family has also accused the neighbor of yelling at Owens' children and calling them racial slurs prior to the shooting.
Prosecutors have been working with investigators in Marion County, Florida, to determine whether they will file charges in the case, Fifth Judicial Chief Assistant State Attorney Walter Forgie said Tuesday.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said Monday that investigators must consider Florida's "stand your ground" law before making an arrest in the case. The statute allows people to respond with deadly force if they reasonably believe they are being threatened with death or serious injury, and says they don't have to retreat if they're "not engaged in a criminal activity and ... in a place where he or she has a right to be."
Woods emphasized Monday that authorities had largely only heard the perspective of the shooter, who has not been publicly named, and were still working to interview Owens' children, who witnessed the killing.
So far, investigators have determined Owens knocked on the neighbor's door to confront her after the 58-year-old White neighbor threw a pair of skates at her children, hitting at least one of them, according to Woods. The shooter told investigators that there was "a lot of aggressiveness" between the two women before she shot Owens, he said.
Owens' family has insisted that her killing was unjustified.
"My daughter, my grandchildren's mother, was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing next to her," Owens' mother Pamela Dias said Monday. "She had no weapon, she posed no imminent threat to anyone."
Owens' family and their attorneys, Ben Crump and Anthony Thomas, are expected to hold a press conference Wednesday.
Witness described dispute before shooting
Some details about the shooting still were unclear, including the nature of the shooter's interaction with Owens' children beforehand, Woods said Monday.
One witness told a sheriff's deputy that children were playing in a nearby field before the shooting and a dispute ensued as the neighbor picked up an electronic tablet that one of the children left on the ground, according to an incident report.
The shooter "engaged" with Owens' children and threw a pair of skates at them, hitting at least one, according to Woods.
One of Owens' children then went home and told the mother what had happened, prompting Owens to walk over to the neighbor's house and knock on the door, Woods said.
As Owens confronted the neighbor, Owens was shot through the door, the sheriff said. When deputies responded to the scene Friday night after receiving a trespassing call, they found Owens laying in the grass with a gunshot wound, the incident report said.
The mother was then brought to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, authorities have said.
Family demands justice for single mother of four
Owens' family and attorneys gathered at a news conference Monday to demand justice for her, saying that her killing was unwarranted and unprovoked.
The first step toward justice, they said, would be the arrest of the shooter.
"We do support our sheriff, but at the same time, we want him to do the job that he has promised that he would do," Thomas, one of the family's attorneys, said. "We want swift justice, and that comes first with an arrest."
In an interview with MSNBC on Monday, Owens' mother said Owens acted "as any parent would do."
"She simply knocked on the door, was unarmed, no weapons. She just wanted answers. She wanted to speak to another adult regarding the incident with her 9-year-old son," Dias told MSNBC.
A single mother of four, Owens has been remembered by her loved ones as a dedicated caretaker of her family and an infectiously positive person.
"She had a smile that would light up the room," reads a verified GoFundMe page started by her family. "But most of all, she was known for how much she loved and absolutely lived for her four children."
"There wasn't anything that she wouldn't do for those near and dear to her heart. She often would give to other single mothers that were in similar situations that she'd been in," the fundraiser page said.
