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The real-life crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or fear or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often incidentally glimpse the expressions of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps 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 American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the perpetrator. 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 a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose children reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found proof that the suspect had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which allow residents and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The movie builds its story with the officer recordings generated during the repeated police visits to the location before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by 911 audio material of Lorincz calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complex about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The production is showcased as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the fact of firearm possession and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished at how little interest the officers took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? How was the gun kept in her home? 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 recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her local residents a very long time, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, 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 ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out 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 led her to think that this might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the closing credits. A deeply sobering portrayal of American crime and punishment.