Ajike “AJ” Shantrell Owens will be remembered as a dedicated mother.
On June 2, 2023, a Black mother of four was fatally shot through a locked door by her White neighbor, Susan Lorincz. The sad episode occurred after nearly two years of hatred quietly increasing in their Ocala, Fla., neighborhood, during which Lorincz not only placed multiple 911 calls about the youngsters on the block, but also admitted to hurling racial obscenities at them, according to CBS News.
Lorincz was convicted of manslaughter in August 2024 and later sentenced to 25 years in jail.
The heartbreaking narrative is now being told to the globe through a new Netflix documentary called The Perfect Neighbor. Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, told USA Today before of the film’s premiere on October 17, that it is “more than just our pain, tragedy, and suffering, and it’s more than my daughter being murdered.”
“It’s a message about racism, bias, how guns in the wrong hands can turn deadly, and weaponizing laws like Stand Your Ground,” she added, referring to the legal principle cited by Lorincz’s defense in court. “So I realized that I had a responsibility to share my daughter’s story if I ever expected true change.”
Here’s all you should know about the late Ajike “AJ” Owens.
She was the mother of four.
Owens has four children: sons Isaac, Titus, and Israel, and daughter Afrika.
Dias created a GoFundMe page after the incident, describing Owens as a “single mother whose life centered around her children.”
“To say she loved her children unconditionally is an understatement,” the statement continued.
According to the page, the mother of four functioned as the “Team Mom” for her children’s sports teams. Dias told PEOPLE that this entailed being a “football mom and a cheer team mom.”
“How she did it, I don’t know, but she was very hands-on,” Dias said of Owens, who also volunteered in their classes and made time to cook a family supper every night for her children.
