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The true crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, witnesses and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the Netflix real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, whose main point of interest 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 officer footage. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose children reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, Lorincz fatally shot Owens 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 the suspect had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to shoot 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 scene before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really suggest anything too complex about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The production is presented as an illustration of how self-defense regulations lead to senseless and tragic violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator notoriously said made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the officers took in this point. When did she buy her gun? 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 gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her neighbors a very long time, Lorincz was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene 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 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 panel's decision is revealed in the closing credits. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.