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The real-life crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Countenances of those harmed, observers and potential offenders appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or flashlights 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 faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps 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 American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an social media personality by her boyfriend, whose main point of interest was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. 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 tragic incident of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose children reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage captured during the repeated police visits to the location before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered incident site itself – introduced 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.

Portrayal of the Accused

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The film is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the fact of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised 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? Could it have been easily accessible and prepared? The police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in recordings 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, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, 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 holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of American crime and punishment.