🔗 Share this article

The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of headlights or flashlights as the police arrive, their faces and voices expressing wariness or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the expressions of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the Netflix real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose main point of interest 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 officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids allegedly harassed and tormented her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused shot Owens dead through her locked door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The investigating authorities found proof that Lorincz had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The documentary constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the killing, 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 Lorincz which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the reality of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the police took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? 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 authorities aren’t shown asking any of these undoubtedly important questions (though they could have inquired in recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what seemed to her neighbors a very long time, Lorincz was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another parallel, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately formally arrested in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It was not successful; and the panel's decision is revealed in the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of U.S. justice and consequences.