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The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches 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 expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the streaming service real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an social media personality by her partner, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, made exclusively of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose children reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when Owens 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 Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The documentary constructs its narrative with the body cam footage generated during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of the caller 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 film does not really suggest anything too complex about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an example of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made gun deaths a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments 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? Was this the first time she discharged the weapon? 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 undoubtedly important questions (though they may have done in footage that were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her neighbors a extended period, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which the individual simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms 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 was not successful; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the closing credits. A deeply sobering picture of American crime and punishment.