The documentary The Perfect Neighbor, set to release on Oct. 17, details the true story of a white woman in Florida who shot and killed her Black neighbor, a mother of four, in 2023, compiled using body camera footage.
The film avoids traditional interviews, instead presenting two years of police interactions with the perpetrator, 60-year-old Susan Lorincz—who often reported noisy children playing in a vacant lot near her Ocala, Florida residence—alongside body camera footage of discussions with her neighbors. Lorincz was convicted of manslaughter with a firearm in 2024 and is currently serving a 25-year prison term.
This details the progression of a neighborhood conflict into a fatal event.
A Neighbor “Living in Fear”
Lorincz frequently contacted authorities, alleging that boisterous neighborhood children were “trespassing,” yelling insults, telling her to be quiet, and issuing death threats. She informed officers she felt under attack and “feared for her life.” The documentary showcases recordings she made of the children playing, intended as evidence for the police. The film’s title, The Perfect Neighbor, originates from Lorincz’s own statement to law enforcement: “I’m like the perfect neighbor.”
The recordings show that officers consistently approached Lorincz’s reports with doubt, as she was the sole resident making such accusations. The children were not, in fact, playing on Lorincz’s land; they were in her next-door neighbor’s yard, where the neighbor had invited them and taught them football. Lorincz arranged for her landlord to place a “no trespassing” sign on her lawn, marking the boundary between her property and her neighbor’s.
Other residents asserted that Lorincz would shout obscenities at their children and expressed unease upon discovering she was filming them.
The children informed police that they were merely playing hide-and-seek in the vacant area and that Lorincz would torment them, using derogatory terms and brandishing an umbrella or a gun.
On one occasion, the children alleged she threw roller skates at them, a claim Lorincz countered by stating she was merely returning skates found on her property. They also recounted Lorincz accusing them of attempting to steal her truck. “We’re 11!” one child is heard exclaiming in the film. They dubbed Lorincz a “Karen,” a colloquial term for angry, middle-aged white women whose complaints may carry racist undertones.
Escalation from Calls to Calamity
The film’s narrative largely focuses on an event that occurred on June 2, 2023. Lorincz alleged that boys were trespassing on her land, and upon her telling them to leave, they responded by saying they would fetch their mother. Lorincz contacted police, and a dispatcher assured her officers would arrive soon.
Lorincz then asserts she was inside her residence when Ajike Owens, a manager residing in her community, appeared and began knocking forcefully on her door. Consequently, Lorincz retrieved a firearm and fired through the door, unaware that Owens’ son was standing beside her. “I thought she was going to kill me,” Lorincz stated to authorities, consistently maintaining that her actions were not deliberate or premeditated. After questioning, when police offered her the chance to write an apology letter, she accepted, expressing remorse to the children and clarifying that she “acted out of fear,” believing their mother intended to harm her.
Florida’s laws do permit the use of deadly force if a threat is presumed. Homicides involving white shooters and Black victims are more likely to be deemed justifiable than those involving Black shooters and white victims. Most notably, led to the 2013 acquittal of a white man named , who shot unarmed Black 17-year-old .
Nevertheless, in recorded police interrogations of Lorincz, detectives express confusion as to why she brandished a weapon just two minutes after a 911 dispatcher confirmed officers were en route. As one investigator remarked, “the decisions you make are not reasonable.” During the 2024 sentencing, the presiding judge contended that Lorincz’s actions stemmed more from rage than apprehension.
The documentary includes segments of national television coverage of the incident. Lorincz and even delivered the eulogy at Owens’ funeral, praising her deeds and addressing her children directly: “If she allowed people to degrade you, you’d grow up with a feeling that you were something that could be degraded.”
Key Insights from The Perfect Neighbor
Director Geeta Gandbhir conveyed to TIME, “If we fail to acknowledge such offenses, if we avert our gaze, if we do not expose them, they will persist unnoticed.”
By meticulously examining two years of police body camera footage, Gandbhir sought to repurpose what was intended to protect law enforcement into a tool that highlights their deficiencies.
Gandbhir, whose family had a close relationship with Owens, questioned why law enforcement did not involve a social worker or other form of mediator to de-escalate the conflict.
She also believes that police ought to have intervened against Lorincz sooner, given the weapons present in her home and her frequent calls to emergency services for non-urgent matters.
“Police do not need to resort to aggressive force to still have let the community down,” she contends. “If one is capable of using a firearm to resolve a minor disagreement with a neighbor, what other actions might they be capable of?”