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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, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the officers approach, their faces and voices expressing caution or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often incidentally glimpse the faces of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the streaming service real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, 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 body cam film. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose children allegedly harassed and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow residents and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of danger. 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 disturbing and disordered incident site itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really suggest anything too complex about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The production is showcased as an illustration 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 deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished at how little interest the officers took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? 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? 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 were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what seemed to her neighbors a extended period, 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 a prior incident). And when she was finally officially taken into custody in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which the individual simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point led her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.