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The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of headlights or flashlights as the police arrive, their expressions and tones eloquent of wariness or fear or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like remarkable hesitation – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the Netflix real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, 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 Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose children allegedly harassed and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her locked door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to address her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The arresting officers found proof that Lorincz had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The movie constructs its narrative with the officer recordings generated during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of the caller calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Portrayal of the Accused

The film does not really suggest anything too complex about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The film is showcased as an example of how “stand your ground” laws generate senseless and tragic violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator notoriously said made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

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 point. When did she buy her gun? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? 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 may have done in recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her local residents a very long time, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which the individual simply refuses to stand, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose psychological state 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 revealed in the end titles. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.