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The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, witnesses and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of headlights or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently catch sight of the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the Netflix true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose main point of interest was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The investigating authorities found proof that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow residents and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption of danger. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the location before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also jail video of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The film is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the reality of gun ownership and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made gun deaths a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished at how minimal concern the police took in this point. When did she buy her gun? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? Was this the first time she discharged the weapon? How was the gun kept in her home? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The authorities aren’t shown asking any of these undoubtedly important questions (though they could have inquired in recordings that were not included). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her local residents a very long time, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which the individual simply refuses to stand, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not aggressively, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she just can’t do it. Did the gentle handling up until that point led her to think that this might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is revealed in the closing credits. A deeply sobering picture of American crime and punishment.