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The true crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of headlights or torches as the officers approach, their expressions and tones eloquent of wariness or panic or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Documentary Filmmaking

We have already had the streaming service true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the slaying of an social media personality by her partner, whose main point of interest was body cam footage 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, made exclusively of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids allegedly harassed and antagonized her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The arresting officers found proof that Lorincz had done online research 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 constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the killing, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage 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 obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an example of how “stand your ground” laws lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit notoriously said made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished 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? Where did she store it in the house? Could it have been easily accessible and prepared? The police 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 possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her local residents 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 point of comparison, incidentally, 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 declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of U.S. justice and consequences.