“But the neighbor, a 58-year-old white woman, who was not named, had taken the iPad and threw it at one of Ms Owens’ children, hitting the boy and cracking the screen, the attorney said. The mother-of-four then marched across the street to speak with the neighbor after hearing of the incident.”
Here is an alternative scenario made up from the same “facts”. It is just as likely to be true (I’d guess more so) as Ben Crump’s narrative:
Due to fear that they might be injured and related liability concerns, the kids had been instructed many times not to play on the private property adjacent to the apartment complex. Having no concept of liability concerns or respect for private property, they construed the owner’s motive to meanness and racism, and trespassed anyway. Somewhere along the line the kids managed to break the iPad they were playing with (which is sketchy - why take an iPad to play in an open field?). Mother is furious and demands explanation. Under questioning Junior pops up with “the mean neighbor woman broke the iPad by throwing it at my head”. Why she do that? She hates us cause we’re black; she yelled the n-word at us. Furious over the “attack” on her child and the racial insults, the mother loses control of herself; goes over to give that racist white b^@%# a Waffle House beat-down. Storms up to the neighbor’s door screaming threats about making her pay for hurting her child, etc. Property owner fears for her life if the crazed woman gets inside. Oh Lord she’s ripping at the door handle. Boom.
Witnesses: From what was stated, there are no independent witnesses or corroborating video. The shooter, and the child or children have a vested interest in skewing the story their way. The latter might have made it all up, and share responsibility for the mother’s death. Absent more evidence (and the story contains only what Crump wants us to believe) or a confession, there is too much reasonable doubt to make a case over this.
A likely scenario. The problem is the white lady shooter has only one witness to testify. Herself. While the prosecution has 5-7 or 8 black children and maybe others as witnesses. To lie their asses off and exaggerate.