Last week, Netflix released heartbreaking true crime film, The Perfect Neighbor. It told the story of a local community rocked by the crimes of Susan Lorincz, and manslaughter of mother-of-four, Ajike “AJ” Owens. Now, the mother of Ajike Owens has spoken out about what it was like to watch The Perfect Neighbor for the first time.
Susan Lorincz was found guilty of the manslaughter of Ajike Owens. Ajike Owens was Susan’s neighbour, and the Black woman and mother-of-four was shot and killed by a single bullet. Susan Lorincz had fired the shot, through her closed front door.
Incidents in the neighbourhood had been going on for months and months, with Susan complaining local children “trespassed” on her land whilst playing outside. On the day of the shooting, Owens’ son told her Lorincz had thrown a rollerblade at him during an argument about where the neighbourhood children were allowed play. Owens had gone round to Susan Lorincz’s house to ask her about what happened, when Lorincz shot through the door.
Susan Lorincz was convicted in August 2024 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, in November 2024. She is now serving her time at the Homestead Correctional Institution in South Florida.
via Netflix
The mother of Ajike Owens has shared her initial response to The Perfect Neighbor
The Perfect Neighbor was only possible to make because of the mother of Ajike Owens, Pamela Dias. She bravely consented to bodycam footage of what happened being used, which meant the film was able to be created.
The creator of the show shared just how Pamela responded when being shown the film for the first time. Geeta Gandbhir told Tudum: “I showed Pam the film when it was completed and I said, ‘Is this what you want?’. She said, ‘Yes, the world needs to know what happened to my baby’.”
She also explained the importance of the bodycam footage that made up the film, that wouldn’t have been possible to include without Pamela.
“For people of colour like myself, for Black and brown folks, oftentimes [police bodycamera footage is] seen as a violent tool,” Geeta explained.
“The police come into our communities and, afterwards, they use body camera footage to criminalise and dehumanise us, to justify violence they may perpetrate against the community. I wanted to take this footage and flip it on its head.“
The Perfect Neighbor is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.
