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The real-life crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, witnesses and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of headlights or torches as the officers approach, their expressions and tones eloquent of caution or panic or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often incidentally glimpse the faces of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the streaming service real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose main point of interest was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, made exclusively of officer footage. 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 antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were repeatedly called, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The arresting officers found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of threat. The documentary builds its story with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complex 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 self-defense regulations generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the fact of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) 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 police took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? Was this the first time she discharged the weapon? 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 could have inquired in recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her local residents a extended period, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only held 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 holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which the individual simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this could be effective?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.