The Perfect Neighbor? Inside Susan Lorincz's Police Interview

Netflix has a new true-crime doc that is tough to shake. The Perfect Neighbor digs into the killing of Ajike 'AJ' Owens, a mother of four from Ocala, Florida, and how a petty, long-running dispute on a quiet street turned into something irreversible. It is a careful, sometimes infuriating reconstruction built from police bodycam video, 911 audio, and interviews that show how this blew up on one June night in 2023.

What the film actually covers

Directed by Geeta Gandbhir, The Perfect Neighbor looks at years of friction between Owens's family and her next-door neighbor, Susan Lorincz. Lorincz repeatedly called the police, saying neighborhood kids were trespassing or playing too close to her property line. Other neighbors say the problem ran the other way: they describe Lorincz cursing at children, filming them, and at times waving objects around like weapons. The kids themselves say she used slurs and once hurled a pair of roller skates. Lorincz denied that and insisted she was just returning things that had been left on her side of the property.

June 2, 2023: how it escalated

The day things broke open started with another accusation of trespassing. Lorincz allegedly took a tablet from Owens's sons. Owens went over to get it back. What happens next is presented in the film through calls and interviews as quick and chaotic: witnesses describe two knocks, then a single gunshot.

According to the documentary, Lorincz first told officers that Owens was banging on her door and threatening her. Minutes later, she called again to say she had fired a shot through her closed front door. During questioning, she claimed it was self-defense and tried to explain her mindset in the moment:

"I was just fearful of my life. I was like, go away, go away."

Owens was hit by the bullet. She was rushed to a hospital but did not survive. The aftermath rattled the community and turned this neighborhood standoff into a criminal case that would stretch into the next year.

The legal fallout, in plain terms

• June 2, 2023: Owens is shot through a closed door at Lorincz's home and later dies at the hospital.
• June 6, 2023: Police arrest Lorincz.
• 2024: A jury finds Lorincz guilty of manslaughter with a firearm. The court sentences her to 25 years in prison.

What the documentary adds

The Perfect Neighbor is not just an incident reel; it maps the slow, ugly build-up that led to that night. It pulls in neighbors' accounts of constant complaints, the kids' memories of taunts and recordings, and Lorincz's version of events, then anchors all of it to verifiable pieces of evidence like 911 calls and bodycam footage. The film is not subtle about the pattern it sees, but it also lays out enough raw context that you can track how every small interaction piled up.

AJ Owens's family on why they participated

Owens's mother, Pamela Dias, backed the project from the start. For her, the film was a way to keep her daughter's full story front and center, not just the worst night of her life. Dias talks about purpose and advocacy: using the documentary to push for more understanding and empathy in communities so this kind of thing does not repeat. She says the idea of the film actually gave her some relief in the middle of grief, easing the weight she was carrying. Throughout production, she says Gandbhir stayed in constant contact, checking in and making sure the family was comfortable at every step and that consent and emotional care were baked into the process.

The bottom line

This is a measured, meticulous watch about a preventable tragedy. If you follow cases where neighborhood disputes turn deadly, the details here are going to stick with you: the door, the tablet, the calls, the years of simmering complaints leading to a single shot. The Perfect Neighbor is now streaming on Netflix.