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The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or flashlights as the police arrive, their expressions and tones expressing wariness or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently catch sight of the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the streaming service real-life crime film 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 police 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 tragic incident of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a African American woman whose children reportedly bothered and antagonized her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. 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 arresting officers found proof that the suspect had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The movie constructs its narrative with the body cam footage captured during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

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 “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film is showcased as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws generate senseless and tragic violence. But the reality of firearm possession and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) 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 officers took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? 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 may have done in recordings that were not included). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared 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, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally formally arrested 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 aggressively, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose psychological state means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment 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 saved for the closing credits. A deeply sobering portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.