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The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often catch sight of the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the Netflix real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed extraordinarily lax with the perpetrator. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, made exclusively of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose children allegedly harassed and tormented her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were summoned multiple times, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when Owens went to the neighbor's residence to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The arresting officers found evidence that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The documentary builds its story with the body cam footage captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of the caller contacting authorities in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Portrayal of the Accused

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The production is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations lead to senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the fact of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the officers took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? Was this the first time she discharged the weapon? Where did she store it in the house? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her neighbors a very long time, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which the individual simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not aggressively, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the closing credits. A deeply sobering picture of U.S. justice and consequences.