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The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, witnesses and potential offenders appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices expressing caution or panic or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently catch sight of the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like remarkable hesitation – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the Netflix true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed extraordinarily lax with the suspect. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of officer footage. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were repeatedly called, 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 State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which allow householders 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 scene before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also jail video of Lorincz which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really suggest anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The film is presented as an example of how “stand your ground” laws generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the fact of firearm possession and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit notoriously said made gun deaths a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is feasible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel surprised at how little interest the officers took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? 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 normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what seemed to her neighbors a very long time, 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, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally officially taken into custody 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 handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose psychological state means that she just can’t do it. Did the gentle handling up until that point led her to think that this might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the panel's decision is revealed in the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of American crime and punishment.