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The real-life crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or flashlights as the officers approach, their expressions and tones eloquent of caution or panic or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often catch sight of the faces of the officers themselves, 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.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the streaming service true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an social media personality by her partner, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement 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 Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, the accused shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow residents and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The movie builds its story with the officer recordings generated during the repeated police visits to the scene before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Portrayal of the Accused

The film does not really imply anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The production is presented as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic violence. But the fact of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit famously claimed made gun deaths a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished at how little interest the police took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? 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 may have done in footage that were not included). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what seemed to her neighbors a extended period, the suspect 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 Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not aggressively, 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 led her to think that this could be effective?

Final Outcome and Judgment

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