In June 2023, 35-year-old mother Aijke “AJ” Owens of Ocala, Florida, was shot and killed by her neighbor, a 58-year-old white woman, Susan Lorincz, after a two-year feud that turned fatal. Netflix’s newest documentary, The Perfect Neighbor, examines the case, offering a raw, unfiltered look through real 911 calls, countless hours of police body camera footage, interrogation videos and court proceedings.

More than just a typical “true crime” story, The Perfect Neighbor exposes deep-seated racial tensions within the Florida community, the incompetence of local law enforcement in their response to Lorincz’s behavior, and the life-or-death consequences of Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law, as well as the haunting disparities Black people experience because of it.

“We didn’t want it to go away or get swept under the rug,” Nikon Kwantu, one of the documentary’s producers, told Blavity’s Shadow and Act while discussing the urgency he and his team felt to get to Florida and begin work on the film. Kwantu, along with fellow producers Alisa Payne and Sam Bisbee and Emmy Award-winning director Geeta Gandbhir, obtained all the footage through the Freedom of Information Act, completed by Owens’ legal team.

Kwantu continued, “What we got was all of the body cam footage and ring footage and a host of other audio files, interviews and interrogations. When we got it, we put it together, looked at it, and strung it together, and we realized that there was a story.”

The film strategically uses footage leading up to AJ Owens’ death

Steering away from the overused formula of narrated reenactments or perspective-based interviews, the film’s use of chronologically ordered footage captures pivotal moments leading up to Owens’ death. From the initial calls in which Lorincz complained about neighborhood kids playing and trespassing on a nearby lot that did not belong to her, the cameras capture police interactions with a tight-knit community enduring Lorincz’s constant harassment, use of racial slurs, and torment, despite her denials and claims of being the victim.

Photo: Netflix

“Usually, there isn’t much footage that shows you the community as they were before something terrible happens,” Gandbhir told us. She went on to note that without any eyes and ears on the ground to give an unbiased, firsthand account of what happened leading up to Owens’ murder, all of their acquired footage was “undeniable.”

Gandbhir added, “We all understand body camera footage is usually used to criminalize us and to surveil us … as people of color and to protect the police, but we thought we could do something different with what the intention of body camera footage here was by showcasing all the things they caught in the community — all that they didn’t intend to. They [the police] unintentionally caught it because they were called so many times. … It’s a show and not tell experience.”

The footage showcases Lorincz’s instability

While the complaints continued to come from Lorincz, the footage also revealed her instability. One suspicious call reported the disgruntled neighbor vandalizing someone else’s property, and another moment captured neighbors debunking her accusation that a child had tried to place an animal in her vehicle. Ultimately, footage also captured the dreadful night when Lorincz, armed with a .380-caliber handgun, shot a single bullet through a locked door, striking Owens, who had come to confront her about using racial slurs against her children.

Ring camera footage shows one of Owens’ children distraught, running from neighbor to neighbor seeking help while crying out, “She shot my mom.” A released 911 call allows viewers to hear Lorincz report the shooting to law enforcement, implying her actions were in self-defense as she “feared” for her life.

As the documentary follows the court proceedings after Owens’ death, it holds up a mirror to the racial tension in the neighborhood and exposes the shortcomings of law enforcement. While officers provided residents with basic decency and respect, “the worst possible outcome happened because they were negligent,” Payne said.

“Multiple residents reported Susan’s escalating behavior, including the use of hate speech and threats, but they didn’t even arrest her. … If it was us, we would’ve been dragged off. They wouldn’t wait four days to detain her,” she said. The film ultimately exposes that the police’s “extreme politeness” is a low bar that must be raised, as “we’re not getting competency,” Payne said.

In August 2024, a six-person jury found Lorincz guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Judge Robert Hodges, who oversaw the case, ruled that Lorincz was under no imminent threat and found the shooting “completely unnecessary.”

‘Stand Your Ground’ laws highlighted in the film

The Perfect Neighbor also does not shy away from policy critique, zeroing in on Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, a statute repeatedly invoked to defend violence against Black people, from Trayvon Martin’s 2012 murder onward.

“We absolutely believe that if someone is in imminent danger and is defending themselves, they have a right to protect themselves. But since the founding of America, right, they have always tried self-defense cases. So there’s no reason to put policies like ‘Stand Your Ground’ on the books unless you’re trying to embolden people like Susan and George Zimmerman to kill Black and brown people,” Payne said.

In light of losing her daughter, Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, and her close friend, Takema Robinson, who is also related to Kwantu and Gandbhir, created the “Standing in the Gap Fund,” designed to help families who have experienced racialized violence and support efforts to challenge policies that harm fair sentencing for Black and brown lives.

Although The Perfect Neighbor follows the unfolding of a murder, it provides a lens into what the nation continues to witness due to gun violence and racialized brutality. Gandbhir said the filmmakers hope the documentary “moves hearts and minds,” much like the video of George Floyd did, sparking not only conversation but also meaningful opposition to laws and practices that endanger Black lives.

Gandbhir confirmed that the documentary received the blessing of Pamela Owens to serve as a voice for her daughter, who she said was always striving to leave a legacy and ensure the world would “remember her name.”

The Perfect Neighbor is now streaming on Netflix.

The post ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ Exposes Racial Tensions, Law Enforcement Failures And Disparities Of ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws appeared first on Blavity.



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