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The real-life crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices expressing caution or panic or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend 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 police seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. 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 Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids allegedly harassed and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were repeatedly called, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which allow residents and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of threat. The movie constructs its narrative 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 – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really imply 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 film is presented as an example of how self-defense regulations generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator notoriously said made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the officers took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? 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? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? 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 normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her neighbors a extended period, Lorincz was not even arrested and charged, only held 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 officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply refuses to stand, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not aggressively, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she just can’t do it. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this could be effective?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the closing credits. A deeply sobering portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.