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The real-life crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Countenances of those harmed, observers and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or flashlights as the officers approach, their expressions and tones expressing wariness or panic or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what sometimes seems like remarkable hesitation – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have already had the streaming service 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 extraordinarily lax 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 Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids reportedly bothered and antagonized her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were repeatedly called, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her closed front door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The documentary constructs its narrative with the officer recordings generated during the repeated police visits to the location before the killing, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of Lorincz contacting authorities in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also jail video of Lorincz which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The film is presented as an example of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the fact of gun ownership and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the police took in this point. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? 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 authorities aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they may have done in recordings that were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her local residents a extended period, 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 point of comparison, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which the individual simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not aggressively, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. 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 jury’s verdict is revealed in the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of American crime and punishment.