Ocala: Civil rights leaders and ministers demanded justice for a black mother who was fatally shot in front of her 9-year-old son by a white neighbour firing through the door of her central Florida home.

During a memorial service on Monday, Ajike Owens was remembered for her deep faith and devotion to her children.

At the three-hour church service in Ocala, Florida, the Reverend Al Sharpton, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and others connected Owens’ death to the killings of other Americans in recent years, such as Trayvon Martin by a neighbourhood watch volunteer in Florida and George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis.

“You can’t kill our loved ones, just because of the colour of their skin, just because they were living while black,” Crump said. “We cannot let them kill our loved ones for just knocking on a door, for loving their children, while black.”

Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four who went by the nickname “AJ,” was killed on June 2 in Ocala, about 133 kilometres north of Orlando. Her neighbour, Susan Lorincz, 58, has been charged with the first-degree felony of manslaughter with a firearm, as well as culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault.

Neighbours said Lorincz frequently called neighbourhood children who played outside her home racial slurs and antagonised them, and that’s what happened 10 days ago when she yelled at Owens’ children as they played nearby and threw a pair of skates that hit one of them, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Lorincz told investigators that she acted in self-defence, and that Owens had been trying to break down her door before Lorincz fired the gun.

But Sheriff Billy Woods said last week that the investigation, which included eyewitness statements, established that Lorincz’s actions were not justifiable under Florida law.