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The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and potential offenders appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or panic or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often incidentally glimpse 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 know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have already had the Netflix true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an social media personality by her boyfriend, whose main point of interest was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, made exclusively of body cam film. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose children reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were repeatedly called, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit residents and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of threat. The documentary builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the location before the killing, and then at the disturbing and disordered incident site itself – introduced by 911 audio material of the caller calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really imply anything too complex about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The production is showcased as an example of how self-defense regulations lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the fact of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is feasible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel surprised at how little interest the police took in this point. At what time did she purchase the firearm? 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 toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her local residents a extended period, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only held and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another point of comparison, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally formally arrested in the detention area, there is an remarkable scene in which the individual simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point led her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of American crime and punishment.