Ajike Owens was fatally shot by her neighbor on June 2, 2023 in Ocala, Florida.
Ajike Owens' son Isaac thanked those who attended his mother's funeral at the Meadowbrook Church in Ocala, Florida on June 12, 2023.
Pamela Dias receives a hug after Susan Lorincz is sentenced to 25 years on Nov. 25, 2024 at the Marion County Judicial Center in Ocala, Florida.

More than two years after Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, was fatally shot in her Ocala, Florida, neighborhood, the heartache remains fresh for her mother, Pamela Dias.

“The pain has not subsided,” Dias tells USA TODAY. “I miss my daughter tremendously.”

The two lived in separate cities but maintained an “extremely close” bond, speaking to each other every single day. “I miss hearing her voice,” Dias says.

Dias now lives in Ocala and takes care of her four grandchildren facing life without their loving “supermom”: Isaac, 14; Israel, 12; Afrika, 9 and Titus, 6 in October.

“Seeing the pain in their eyes, it's never ending,” Dias says.

On June 2, 2023, Owens walked across the street to Susan Lorincz’s house to confront her about mistreating her older sons. Since Lorincz, who is white, had moved into the neighborhood, she frequently called 9-1-1 to report the area children for allegedly being noisy or trespassing. She accused Owens, who was Black, of throwing a yard sign at her, which Owens denied. Lorincz, who claims she feared for her life, picked up her .380-caliber handgun and fired a single bullet through her front door fatally striking Owens in the right side of her chest. Lorincz unsuccessfully argued self-defense and is serving out a 25-year sentence for manslaughter.

Owens’ death is the focus of Netflix’s documentary “The Perfect Neighbor” (streaming now), assembled mostly from hours of body camera footage and interrogation video. The recordings capture the incredibly raw aftermath of the shooting, when Owens’ three older children and other family members are informed of her death.

Dias draws strength from Mamie Till-Mobley, the doc's director Geeta Gandbhir says in an interview with USA TODAY. When Till-Mobley’s Black, 14-year-old son Emmett Till was beaten, shot and discarded in Mississippi’s Tallahatchie River in 1955, Till-Mobley demanded an open casket at his funeral so the world could see what happened to her young son. (Two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were acquitted of Till’s murder by a jury consisting solely of white men. They later confessed.)

“Similarly, (Dias) wanted the world to know (how) she felt,” Gandbhir says.

In the 98-minute documentary, Owens’ oldest son Isaac runs to a neighbor’s house pleading for them to dial 9-1-1. In a call for help, someone can be heard asking Owens to “wake up” as she lay near Lorincz’s yard.

With tears running down his face, Israel asks if his mom is moving and says he wants to see. Isaac is asked if he’s hurt and replies, “No, but my heart is broken.”

The children’s father (whose name is not provided) is called and informed that Owens did not survive. He backs away, in anguish over what he’s heard. He then rises to the unimaginable task of telling his children their mother is gone.

“Mom’s not coming back anymore,” he says. His sons try to flee, and he grabs them tightly. “I’m so sorry,” he repeats to them, as they try to absorb their new reality. Dias learns of the news over the phone and is similarly inconsolable.

Gandbhir says she and Dias had discussions about what footage of the tragic evening would be shown.

“If we allow things like this to remain in the dark and we don't shine a light on them, they will continue to happen,” Gandbhir says. “But when people bear witness, they are often inspired to take action.”

Dias says after seeing her grandsons' reactions, “I just broke down. My heart was broken, was just shattered.”

“They were so young,” she adds. “Just imagine what they were feeling and experiencing at that very moment to learn that their mother wasn't coming back.”

Today, Dias acknowledges her grandkids are “still very much in pain, but they're very resilient,” she says. The family is strengthened by the support of their community and a hope that “there is real change, and a purpose has been born out of our tragedy.”

The documentary is “more than just our pain and our tragedy and our suffering, and it's more than my daughter being murdered,” Dias says. “It's a message about racism, bias, how guns in the wrong hands can turn deadly, weaponizing laws like Stand Your Ground. So I realized that I had a responsibility to share my daughter's story if I ever expected true change.”

Under the most tragic of circumstances, Owens’ prediction that she’d be well-known has come true.

“She had such high hopes for her future,” Dias says. She and her daughter would discuss various businesses that Owens might start.

“She was just adamant that she was just going to be so successful,” Dias says. “And she would always say, ‘The world is going to know my name. Yes, the world is going to know my name.’”

“I'm saddened that it had to happen this way,” Dias adds, “but then I feel blessed because this means that the world cares. And if the world cares, there's hope for a real change.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ajike Owens' mom felt 'responsibility' to make incredibly raw 'The Perfect Neighbor'

Reporting by Erin Jensen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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