Killing of Ajike Owens

On June 2, 2023, Ajike "A.J." Shantrell Owens, a 35-year-old mother, was shot and killed by her neighbor, 58-year-old Susan Lorincz, in Ocala, Florida. Owens had gone to Lorincz's door after an altercation between her children and Lorincz in a grassy area nearby, and while she stood outside the windowless front door, Lorincz fired a single shot through it, striking Owens in the chest. Deputies from the Marion County Sheriff's Office were already en route to the residence in response to a report of "trespassing" when a second 911 call reported gunfire; arriving officers found Owens on the ground with a gunshot wound, and she was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to a local hospital. Her ten-year-old son was standing beside her when she was shot.

Since January 2021, deputies had responded to about six documented calls involving disputes between Lorincz and Owens's household, centered on Owens's children playing in a grassy area next to Lorincz's apartment that Lorincz treated as her own. A neighbor said Lorincz was "angry all of the time" about the children's presence and would shout at them. According to an arrest affidavit, Lorincz admitted using racial slurs toward the children, including calling them the "n-word" and "Black slaves." On the night of the shooting, investigators said Lorincz threw a pair of roller skates that struck Owens's son in the foot and may have swung an umbrella at another child playing nearby; only a minute before the shooting, she had called 911 herself to say she felt threatened by the children.

Investigators said physical evidence and witness accounts did not support Lorincz's claim that she fired in self-defense after Owens pounded on her door, finding no indication that Owens had tried to enter the apartment or posed an imminent threat. In the days after the shooting, the family's attorney publicly called for Lorincz's arrest, and Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said his department was evaluating Florida's stand-your-ground law before proceeding; after Lorincz's arrest he said the law did not justify firing through a locked door, calling the shooting "simply a killing." Lorincz was arrested on June 6, 2023, and charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault.

Following a week-long trial in Marion County Circuit Court, an all-white, six-person jury found Lorincz guilty of manslaughter with a firearm on August 16, 2024, after about two hours of deliberation; prosecutors argued no credible evidence supported a self-defense claim. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison on November 25, 2024. The sentencing judge cited the indiscriminate nature of her actions and the trauma inflicted on Owens's children, and considered aspects of Lorincz's own personal background without treating them as mitigating. As of October 2025, Lorincz was serving her sentence at Homestead Correctional Institution in Florida. In 2025, Owens's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lorincz, who has said she intends to countersue for defamation.

The case renewed national debate over Florida's stand-your-ground statute and its intersection with race and neighborhood disputes. Owens's family and civil rights advocates called for legislative reform, and Owens's mother later co-founded a nonprofit, Standing in the Gap, to support families affected by racially motivated violence. In 2025, the case became the subject of the Netflix documentary "The Perfect Neighbor," drawn from police bodycam footage and interviews with witnesses and investigators; it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, won the festival's 2025 U.S. Documentary directing award, and debuted as Netflix's number-one film in the United States.