Netflix acquires Sundance documentary on Ajike Owens killing

A new documentary assembled from police body camera footage, 911 calls and other archival material chronicles the June 2, 2023 killing of 35-year-old Ajike "AJ" Owens by her neighbor, 58-year-old Susan Lorincz, in Ocala, Florida, and traces the months of complaints, law enforcement responses and a criminal trial that ended with Lorincz’s conviction and a 25-year prison sentence. The film, directed by Geeta Gandbhir, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival where it won a directing prize and was later acquired by Netflix for a reported $5 million before its October release on the streaming service.

According to court records and the footage used in the film, Lorincz had repeatedly called police beginning in late 2022 to complain about neighborhood children she said were making noise and trespassing on a vacant lot beside her home. On the evening of June 2, Owens, a mother of four, went to Lorincz’s front door to confront what she said had been an altercation in which Lorincz had thrown roller skates and allegedly shouted at Owens’s children. Lorincz fired a single bullet through the closed door, striking Owens, who was pronounced dead at a hospital. Owens’s nine-year-old son...