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The real-life crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or panic or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often incidentally glimpse the expressions of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – 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 The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, whose main point of interest was body cam footage 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, made exclusively of body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a African American woman whose children allegedly harassed and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her closed front door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The arresting officers found proof that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit residents and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really imply anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any extenuating circumstance. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The production is showcased as an example of how self-defense regulations lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the fact of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator famously claimed made gun deaths a necessary cost) 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 police 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 police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant 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?

Arrest and Aftermath

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 parallel, 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 Lorincz simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment 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 end titles. A deeply sobering picture of U.S. justice and consequences.