🔗 Share this article

The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the officers approach, their expressions and tones expressing caution or fear or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often catch sight of the expressions of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

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 extraordinarily lax 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 a city in Florida, a African American woman whose four young kids allegedly harassed and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, the accused shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when Owens went to the neighbor's residence to address her about throwing objects at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found proof that Lorincz had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit residents and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption of threat. The documentary builds its story with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings 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.

Portrayal of the Accused

The documentary does not really imply anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The film is presented as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws generate unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the fact of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator notoriously said made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is feasible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel surprised at how little interest 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? 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 undoubtedly important questions (though they may have done in footage that were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her local residents a extended period, 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, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an remarkable scene in which the individual simply refuses to stand, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not hostilely, 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 led her to think that this might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of U.S. justice and consequences.