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The real-life crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, witnesses and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their expressions and tones eloquent of caution or panic or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently catch sight of the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the Netflix true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the slaying of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose main point of interest was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of Ajike Owens in a city in Florida, a African American woman whose children allegedly harassed and tormented her white neighbour, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her closed front door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The arresting officers found evidence that Lorincz had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to shoot if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The movie constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – introduced by 911 audio material of the caller 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 kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an example of how self-defense regulations lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator famously claimed made gun deaths 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 surprised at how minimal concern the officers took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? Was this the first time she discharged the weapon? How was the gun kept in her home? 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 recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her local residents a very long time, Lorincz was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, 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 led her to think that this could be effective?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the end titles. A very sombre picture of U.S. justice and consequences.