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The real-life crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Countenances of those harmed, observers and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or flashlights as the police arrive, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or panic or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often catch sight of the faces 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.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the streaming service true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, 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 Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a African American woman whose four young kids allegedly harassed and antagonized her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The arresting officers found proof that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit residents and others to shoot if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The movie constructs its narrative with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the scene before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of Lorincz calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The film is presented as an example of how “stand your ground” laws generate senseless and tragic violence. But the fact of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit notoriously said made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is feasible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel surprised 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? 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 commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her local residents a very long time, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another point of comparison, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally officially taken into custody in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not aggressively, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. 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 panel's decision is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.