On Sunday, it was one year since Ajike "AJ" Owens, a 35-year-old Black single mother of four, was shot through a locked door and killed outside her white neighbor's apartment near Ocala.
The Owens family marked the end of a tough year with a special event outside the Immerse Church of Ocala. There were prayers, a balloon release and chants of "Justice for AJ." The children danced before portraits of their mom and read to the crowd of about 50 people.
"We cried," Owens' 8-year-old daughter, Afrika, read, "but we still need to forgive the person who killed one of our family members. No matter what, we still have to love."
The shooter -- 59-year-old Susan Lorincz -- claimed self defense under Florida's stand your ground law and it was several days before the Marion County Sheriff's Office charged her with manslaughter and assault.
Other neighbors said she would use racial slurs with Owens' kids.
Owens went to confront her over mistreating her boys that Friday night when investigators say Lorincz shot her.
Lorincz remains in jail with bail set at $151,000. Her trial is scheduled to begin later this month, though it could be pushed back.
She has pleaded not guilty.
On Sunday, Owens' mother, Pamela Dias, said the children -- ages 4 to 13 -- need it to be over soon so they can heal.
"Every time there's a delay," Dias said, "the children think that maybe she's gotten out. They need closure. They need to know that she's been convicted, she's going to be behind bars for however many years it's going to be."
Two of Owens' children -- including a 10-year-old boy who witnessed the shooting -- danced at Sunday's special event. It's part of their church experience, Dias said.
"It is an outlet for them to mourn their pain and celebrate what life has to offer -- the joyness that their mother would want them to continue to live in and not just the pain and the sorrow."
But Dias said she believes even a guilty verdict won't bring true justice.
"Justice," she said, "would be this never happening from the get-go. Justice would be eradicating racism. Justice would be proper gun-reform laws. That's the only true, real justice in all of this -- it's doing something and finding a way that other people aren't impacted the way our family has been."
