MARGATE, Fla. — A 91-year-old woman is facing a hate crime charge for firing a BB gun at her neighbor while she was living in Margate, authorities say.
Police said the incident happened on May 4, 2025 in the 6800 block of Royal Palm Boulevard. Now, more than a year later, authorities took suspect Lois Helen Roeckelein into custody.
Residents in the 55-plus community describe Roeckelein, who turns 92 in July, as sharp as a tack and said that she was only trying to protect her property. But authorities said what she did was criminal.
Local 10 News spoke with the alleged victim, Marilyn Lopez, who said Roeckelein, then 90, fired at her while she was walking her dog, Cash, along a canal right behind Roeckelein’s home.
She said Roeckelein told her, “If you don’t get out of my property, I’m going to shoot you right now.”
Then, she said, “that lady started shooting.”
Lopez claims it wasn’t the first confrontation.
“That lady, two times before that, she said, ‘I will not rest until I see all of you immigrants go back where you belong,’” Lopez said.
Margate police responded to the incident last year and residents watched shocked to see their elderly neighbor taken into custody under the Baker Act. She was never officially arrested.
Another neighbor said, “So I said to Lois, ‘What happened?’ She said, ‘Well, that lady with the little dog keeps walking behind my property and the dog keeps messing and she doesn’t pick up the stuff.’”
Roeckelein was issued a notice to appear in court, but after more than a year, never showed.
Margate police only realized the senior had a warrant for her arrest after they began investigating a traffic crash she was in on Wednesday.
Lopez said she was concerned about Roeckelein’s mental state; she’s known to be caring for her 101-year-old husband.
“And I said, ‘You have to figure it out, what type of help they need, because they are seniors,’” Lopez said. “If she’s not well mentally, she’s not in the capacity to help (her) husband.”
Roeckelein would later be released from jail. She has reportedly moved to Port St. Lucie, where she’s receiving assistance from friends.
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