The Perfect Neighbor, Netflix’s new true crime documentary, is a remarkably intimate look into the shooting of Ajike “AJ” Owens, a Black woman, by her white neighbour Susan Lorincz.
In many ways the case is eerily reminiscent of the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012. In both cases an adult claimed to feel threatened by Black children in their neighbourhood and then shot and killed an unarmed Black neighbour. In both cases the killer claimed self-defence on the basis of Florida’s Stand-Your-Ground laws. The difference is that, in Lorincz’s case, the defence failed and she was found guilty of manslaughter.
Told almost exclusively through police body-cam footage, The Perfect Neighbour walks audiences through the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Ajike “AJ” Owens in Ocala, Florida. It begins with police responding to call after call by Lorincz, then 58.
And, more importantly, can we please go?
In the weeks leading up to the shooting, Lorincz makes continual complaints about the Black children in her neighbourhood, who are never doing anything more sinister than throwing around a football. By Lorincz’s own admission, she called the children the N-word and often yelled at them for playing too loudly near her apartment.
On June 2, 2023, Owens goes to confront Lorincz after her son tells her that Lorincz threw a roller skate at him. Owens angrily pounds on Lorincz’s door, which is locked, and Lorincz calls the police. But by the time the police arrive, Lorincz has already shot and killed Owens from behind her own door.
Keep reading for to find out what happened in the two years since Owens’s death.
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What happened to Susan Lorincz?
Susan Lorincz was not immediately arrested after she admitted to shooting Owens through the front door of her apartment.
After an investigation into whether her actions were justified under Florida’s Stand-Your-Ground law, Lorincz was formally arrested on June 7, 2023. She was charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault.
Just over a year after Owens’s death, in August 2024, Lorincz was found guilty of manslaughter. Three months later, in November 2024, she was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Where is Susan Lorincz now?
Lorincz is serving her 25-year sentence at a Florida state prison.
People are calling it the show of the year, and rightly so.
Has Susan Lorincz apologised to the family of Ajike Owens?
CNN reported that at her sentencing, Lorincz addressed Owens’s family and apologised for killing her.
“I am so sorry I took AJ’s life. I never intended to kill her,” Lorincz said. “I could not understand why she was so angry…I so wish I could go back and change things so she was still here. I would trade my life.”
In the same statement, Lorincz maintained that she was confused on the night of the shooting because of Owens’s screams.
According to People, Owens’s mother, Pamela Dias, called the apology “a last-ditch attempt to save herself. It wasn’t sincere; she never showed remorse.”
Has Ajike Owens’s family responded to the documentary?
Owens’s family is supportive of the documentary, and worked with director Geeta Gandbhir regarding what footage would be shown in the final cut — including the devastating scene where Owens’s children learn that their mother did not survive her gunshot wound.
In an interview with USA Today, Gandbhir said, “If we allow things like this to remain in the dark and we don’t shine a light on them, they will continue to happen.… But when people bear witness, they are often inspired to take action.”
In the wake of Owens’s death, her mother, Pamela Dias, and her best friend’s sister, Tameka Robinson, cofounded the Standing in the Gap Fund nonprofit, which aims to “respond to the trauma of race-based violence by easing financial burdens and supporting healing,” per the organisation's website. The Standing in the Gap Fund calls The Perfect Neighbour “a call to witness, to grieve, and to act” and features a toolkit for hosting a community gathering to watch the film.
Robinson told CNN that the Standing in the Gap Fund invests in the arts “as tools for justice and healing.” Added Dias, “The Fund was born out of that need — to transform grief into action.”
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Where are Owens’s children now?
Owens had four children: Isaac, 14, Israel, 12, Afrika, 9, and Titus, 6. Per CNN, the children are now living with their grandmother, Pamela Dias, who moved to Ocala, Florida, to raise them.
“The pain has not subsided,” Dias told USA Today of her own grief. She added that the children are “still very much in pain, but they’re very resilient."
In the wake of the shooting, as seen in the documentary film, Owens’s two older sons, Isaac and Israel, struggled with feelings of guilt over their mother’s death. At the time of Lorincz’s trial, a representative for the family told CNN that the children were in counselling.
Does Florida still have stand-your-ground laws?
Yes, the law is still in effect in Florida, as well as 29 more states across the US, per Newsweek. Florida was the first state to enact the law in 2005.
In an interview with PBS, Robert Spitzer, professor emeritus of political science at SUNY Cortland, said “numerous studies” have found that the law is correlated with an increase in homicide and gun homicide.
There is also a “race problem” in the way the law is enforced, said Spitzer. If a white person kills a Black person and uses a stand-your-ground defence, Spitzer said, “that claim is much more likely to be accepted than the reverse.”
This article originally appeared on Glamour (US).
