Ajike “AJ” Owens was killed by her neighbour Susan Lorincz in June 2023.
The Perfect Neighbor is on Netflix and the documentary tells the harrowing story of how a mother-of-four was shot and killed through a locked door by her neighbour.
Before the shooting, Susan Lorincz had often complained about AJ’s children, who would play in an open field near her apartment.
She would call them derogatory names and racial slurs, but things came to a head on June 2, 2023, after AJ went to Lorincz’s apartment to confront her following a reported incident involving one of her sons.
When AJ knocked and shouted for Lorincz to open the door, Lorincz fired a single shot through the locked door and it killed the 35-year-old mother. Lorincz claimed it was in self-defence, but she was eventually charged with manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
To this day, AJ’s death has had a harrowing impact on her children – Isaac, Israel, Afrika and Titus – and their lives.
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Israel was standing next to his mother when she was shot and he was just nine years old at the time.
Isaac, her eldest son, also witnessed the shooting and called 911, running to a neighbour’s house to get help.
Heartbreakingly, Israel and Isaac have both admitted to feeling responsible for their mother’s death.
On the one-year anniversary of her death, AJ’s children recited a poem at a memorial service.
Ever since, the children have been raised by their grandmother, Pamela Dias.
Dias revealed the impact AJ’s death has had on the children, saying Isaac has been in trauma therapy, according to People.com.
She was also researching counselling for Israel, while sharing how Titus, who was just a toddler when his mother died, was “confused, irritable and inconsolable” in the weeks after.
She told CNN in October 2025: “It’s been very hard for the children – they were very young when they lost their mother, and it’s something no child should have to endure.
“At the same time, they’ve shown strength and resilience that continues to amaze me.
“I can see the values my daughter instilled in them – her kindness, her love, her faith – and that means they carry a piece of her wherever they go.”
Dias has since co-founded a non-profit organisation in honour of her daughter called the Standing in the Gap Fund, which aims to support families impacted by gun and racial violence and to fight for legislative change.
The Perfect Neighbor is on Netflix
