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The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of headlights or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices expressing caution or panic or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often incidentally glimpse the faces of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the Netflix true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed surprisingly lenient with the perpetrator. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose children allegedly harassed and tormented her white neighbour, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were repeatedly called, Lorincz fatally shot Owens 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 arresting officers found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption of threat. The documentary builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the scene before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of the caller calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of Lorincz which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really imply anything too complex about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The production is presented as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws 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 necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished at how minimal concern the police took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? 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? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The authorities aren’t shown asking any of these undoubtedly important questions (though they could have inquired in footage that were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her local residents 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, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was ultimately formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not aggressively, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point led her to think that this could be effective?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering portrayal of American crime and punishment.