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The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their expressions and tones eloquent of wariness or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently catch sight of the expressions of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have already had the streaming service true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an social media personality by her partner, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids allegedly harassed and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her locked door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit householders and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of threat. The movie constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered incident site itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of the caller contacting authorities in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also jail video of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Portrayal of the Accused

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The production is presented as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the fact of firearm possession and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit notoriously said made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is feasible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished at how minimal concern the police took in this point. When did she buy her gun? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? 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 authorities aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her local residents a extended period, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even provided accommodation 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 extraordinary sequence in which the individual simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not aggressively, 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 could be effective?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is revealed in the closing credits. A deeply sobering picture of American crime and punishment.