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The real-life crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices expressing caution or fear or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently catch sight of the faces of the officers themselves, 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.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the Netflix real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the slaying of an social media personality by her boyfriend, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement 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 grim case of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a African American woman whose children allegedly harassed and antagonized her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, 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 Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found proof that the suspect had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of danger. The documentary constructs its narrative with the body cam footage captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller contacting authorities in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

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 production is presented as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the police took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? 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 undoubtedly important questions (though they could have inquired in recordings that were not included). 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 taken into custody and indicted, only held and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another parallel, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately formally arrested in the detention area, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply refuses to stand, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. 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 panel's decision is revealed in the closing credits. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.