‘The Perfect Neighbor’: Bodycam Footage Shows the Worthlessness of Police

The Netflix documentary captures not only the tragic circumstances of Ajike Owen's death but also the failures of a system that should have protected her.

(Screenshot, WCJB TV20 News/YouTube)

Ajike Owens should still be alive.

After watching the devastating Netflix documentary “The Perfect Neighbor,” there is simply no other conclusion than that this bright-smiling, 35-year-old Black mother of four young children had her life senselessly snatched from her by a racist white woman killer on June 2, 2023.

People who followed the case in real time won’t need a documentary to know this. The case of Owens’ killing by her neighbor across the street, then-58-year-old Susan Lorincz, sparked a national conversation about Florida’s “stand your ground” law. Brought to national infamy in 2012 as the defense George Zimmerman used to get off for killing Black teen Trayvon Martin, this law was also used as an excuse by Marion County police as to why they didn’t immediately arrest Lorincz for killing Owens. Director Geeta Gandbhir’s sister-in-law was best friends with Owens, so Gandbhir came to Florida and began filming community protests for this documentary as a way to fight back against Lorincz’s Stand Your Ground defense. After protests for justice in front of the sheriff’s office and after police completed their investigation, Lorincz was finally arrested several weeks later. But while the documentary highlights the dangerousness of Florida’s stand your ground law—particularly for Black victims of white shooters—what the documentary actually proves is that it wasn’t one law but the entire system of policing that failed Ajike “AJ” Owens, over and over again.