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The true crime category has a new medium, 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, sometimes in the harsh glare 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 catch sight of the faces of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what occasionally 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 real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an social media personality 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 Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a African American woman whose children reportedly bothered and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were summoned multiple times, the accused fatally shot Owens through her closed front door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The arresting officers found proof that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to shoot if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The movie constructs its narrative with the officer recordings generated during the multiple officer calls to the location 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 police cell footage of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film is presented as an illustration of how self-defense regulations lead to senseless and tragic violence. But the reality of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished at how little interest 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? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they may have done in footage that were not included). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her local residents a very long time, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Did the gentle handling up until that point led her to think that this might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the panel's decision is revealed in the closing credits. A very sombre portrayal of American crime and punishment.