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The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or flashlights as the police arrive, their expressions and tones expressing wariness or fear or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like remarkable hesitation – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the streaming service true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, whose main point of interest was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed surprisingly lenient with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, composed entirely of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a African American woman whose children allegedly harassed and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, Lorincz shot Owens dead 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 Legal Context

The arresting officers found evidence that Lorincz had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The movie constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the repeated police visits to the location before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered incident site itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of Lorincz calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Portrayal of the Accused

The film does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The film is presented as an example of how “stand your ground” laws lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the reality of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished at how minimal concern the officers took in this point. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? Where did she store it in the house? 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 recordings that were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her neighbors a very long time, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally 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 handcuffs, not aggressively, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. 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 panel's decision is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of American crime and punishment.