Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Netflix, True Crime, Crime
Brenna Cooper
Warning: This article contains graphic images which some readers may find distressing.
A new Netflix documentary shows the horrifying aftermath of when a US woman shot her neighbour over a dispute.
On 2 June 2023, Ajike Owens, 35, was shot by her neighbour, Susan Lorincz, following a series of previous altercations between their children regarding a patch of land next to the 58-year-old's Florida home.
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She was rushed to hospital by emergency services and later pronounced dead, leaving behind four children.
The fatal dispute started after Owens and her 10-year-old son went over to confront Lorincz about throwing a roller skate at one of her kids. Lorincz then shot at Owens through the door of her home, claiming she was exercising her right to follow the state's controversial stand-your-ground law.
Over two years on from Owens' killing and Netflix has now released The Perfect Neighbour, a documentary following the run-up to her death and the aftermath primarily through the use of police body-cam footage.
Throughout the one-hour 40-minute documentary, viewers see footage from numerous visits to the neighbourhood after being called by Lorincz.
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In one clip, Lorincz claims that Owens had thrown a sign at her, while another visit sees officers tell Lorincz that she can't keep phoning the police every time she hears children playing on the public field next to her house.
"I'm peaceful and quiet. I'm like the perfect neighbour. You barely ever see me," Lorincz says to officers in one clip, while another resident later tells law enforcement: "Everyone down this block has yelled at this lady [Lorincz] because of how she talks to the kids."
The documentary also shows the harrowing moment in which Marion County police received the call informing them that Owens had been fatally shot.
In doorcam footage from the night of 2 June, Owens' son can be seen shouting 'Call 911' repeatedly to a neighbour, adding: "Please. She shot my mum."
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"I heard one shot and everybody screaming 'Call the police. Call the police'," adds a second witness, while a third neighbour says: "My neighbour has been screaming at the kids outside and all of the sudden I heard what to me sounded like a gunshot."
Body-cam footage then shows officers driving to the street, alongside a call from a panicked Lorincz, who claimed that Owens was attempting to break in.
As emergency service workers attempt to deliver first aid to an unresponsive Owens, another officer arrests Lorincz outside her home. She would later be pronounced dead at the hospital in the early hours of 3 June.
"Football. That's what they play over there," a visibly distraught neighbour tells an officer after they're informed that Owens has passed away. "Football."
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Lorincz was ultimately convicted of manslaughter a year later and handed a 25-year prison sentence.
The Perfect Neighbour is available to stream on Netflix now.