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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, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their expressions and tones expressing caution or panic or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the Netflix real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an social media personality by her partner, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed extraordinarily lax 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 African American woman whose children reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, the accused fatally shot Owens through her closed front door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The arresting officers found proof that the suspect had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow residents and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. 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 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.

Portrayal of the Accused

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

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished at how minimal concern 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? Could it have been easily accessible and prepared? 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 possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her local residents a extended period, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). 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, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not aggressively, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It was not successful; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the closing credits. A very sombre picture of U.S. justice and consequences.