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The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or flashlights as the police arrive, their expressions and tones eloquent of wariness or panic or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often catch sight of the expressions of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the Netflix real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose main point of interest was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient 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 four young kids reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused shot Owens dead through her locked door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The arresting officers found evidence that Lorincz had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The movie constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the repeated police visits to the location before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – introduced 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 the neighbor, or any extenuating circumstance. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The film is presented as an example of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the fact of gun ownership 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.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished 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? 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 undoubtedly important questions (though they may have done in footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her local residents a very long time, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, 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 Lorincz simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point encouraged her to think that this could be effective?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the closing credits. A deeply sobering portrayal of American crime and punishment.