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The true crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their expressions and tones expressing caution or panic or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently catch sight of the expressions of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – 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 true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, 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 body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case 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 neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that Lorincz had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit residents and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of threat. The documentary builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the scene before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really imply anything too complex about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The production is presented as an example of how “stand your ground” laws generate unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much highlighted.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished at how minimal concern the police 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 undoubtedly important questions (though they could have inquired in footage that were not included). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her neighbors a extended period, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only held and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, 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 aggressively, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point led her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of American crime and punishment.