Police video, family interviews reveal Ajike Owens case details - 20/20 ‘The Neighbor from Hell’ P1

[0:01] Okay, what is your name? [1:03] Did you know her? [1:16] Somebody got to die. [1:19] Okay, just stay on the phone with me. [1:21] Six, seven, eight, nine. [1:24] Right here, right here! [1:25] The gun! [1:28] Bravo, 27 Marion. [1:29] There's only one Marion. [1:30] Try Marion. [1:31] Hold on. [1:34] Hey, everybody go. [1:38] I need everybody back in the street, in the street. [1:40] Everybody off the property, onto the roadway. [1:44] There is still someone with a gun. [1:45] He's inside. [1:46] Where? [1:46] That apartment, in the front, in the front. [1:48] Let's go outside of your house! [1:51] This neighborhood is called Quail Run. [2:04] It's very small. [2:06] It's just these two streets. [2:09] Very family friendly, lots of kids. [2:11] Somebody's puppy. [2:18] Go, go back. [2:22] Don't follow us. [2:24] That's a new puppy. [2:25] So after school, you know, homework, kids change out of their clothes. [2:31] They come out here, they play. [2:33] Go in for dinner, come back out and play until it's time for bed. [2:38] Almost every day, we get a knock on our door. [2:41] Say, can you play? [2:42] Can you play? [2:44] You can come hoop with us. [2:47] We would take walks, run around, and we used to play football. [2:52] We did a lot of stuff, normal kid things. [2:57] You see the children outside playing, enjoying themselves, just being carefree. [3:03] We were a close-knit neighborhood. [3:08] Moms knew each other because all the kids were at the bus stop together at 6, you know, something in the morning. [3:14] So we all knew whose child belonged to who. [3:17] All the children would come over to my house because my house was directly across from the field. [3:22] So, you know, we were just a family neighborhood. [3:25] The vibe in this close little community shifts after Susan Lawrence, a new neighbor, moves in. [3:42] Susan Lawrence was involved in her church. [3:45] She sang in the choir. [3:46] She worked from home. [3:48] She had two cats. [3:50] She was somebody who probably just wanted to be left alone. [3:54] And this is my apartment here. [3:56] And they're all here in the front. [3:58] It's really, we can hear it's loud, it's noisy, kids are out there. [4:01] They're kids. [4:01] She just did not enjoy having kids around. [4:04] The noise, proximity, just them being in her space. [4:09] The trespassing, there's a trespassing sign. [4:11] I told them, please don't come here. [4:13] I'm working. [4:15] Kids, I'm careful. [4:16] She always wanted to argue with the kids, [4:18] but she never wanted [4:18] to talk to none of us adults, none of us. [4:22] But it was like an ongoing situation. [4:25] It seemed like Susan's main beef [4:27] was with the children of the woman across the street, Ajaka Owens. [4:31] By all accounts to the neighbors, she was the ideal mom. [4:37] She had four children, four beautiful, highly intelligent, very well-loved children. [4:44] Ajaka was very strong-willed. [4:47] She had a mind of her own always, but in a good way. [4:51] And I think that kind of transcended down [4:54] to her children as well. [4:56] She was a manager for McDonald's for many years, [5:00] and she was also being groomed to be a GM. [5:05] And at what point were you aware that she had a neighbor whom she found difficult? [5:09] So she would tell me that there was a neighbor [5:12] that was just basically harassing the children. [5:15] My daughter told me that Susan had called the police. [5:20] What did you call for? [5:21] I called because the lady across the street on the phone hit me with a sign. [5:26] Her children were walking their dog on the property. [5:28] It clearly says, no trespassing. [5:30] And then she just got in my face, and she put the sign through that, [5:34] and then hit me in the mouth. [5:37] There was a run-in between the two. [5:39] Susan claims that Aj went over to Susan's house, [5:44] picked up a no trespassing sign, and threw it at Susan. [5:47] Do you know her? [5:49] No. [5:50] I know her children because they're always over here, [5:51] always screaming, yelling, playing games, doing this and all that. [5:55] It's the place I work from home. [5:57] You know, I sell insurance. [5:59] I'm very quiet. I don't bother anyone. [6:01] So I don't understand the attitude. [6:04] There was an initial confrontation dating back to February of 2022. [6:08] And she shouldn't have removed the sign either. [6:10] It's the landlord's sign. [6:12] One thing about Ajika is she doesn't play about her kids. [6:15] So I knew that she would nip it in the bud every time. [6:19] I see that smirk on your face. [6:21] You say, you already know? [6:23] Does she call the police on you? [6:24] Yeah. [6:24] My daughter, she was actually keeping the peace [6:26] because she was never there. [6:27] She was never the initiator. [6:29] She did nothing wrong. [6:30] You can't tell them technically if they're not in your personal, personal space [6:34] that they can't walk the dog or even throw their football over you. [6:38] This was a case that boiled into something that I don't think anybody thought it would. [6:46] Susan was like, do you see this sign? [6:48] This is a no trespassing sign. [6:50] Don't come over here. [6:50] Get your ass off my property. [6:52] I kept saying, step back, step back, step back.