🔗 Share this article A Chilling Documentary Analysis: Examining a Notorious Incident Through the Perspective of a State Cop's Body Camera The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the police arrive, their faces and voices expressing wariness or panic or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often 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 maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded. An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking We have previously seen the Netflix real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an social media personality by her boyfriend, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, made exclusively 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 allegedly harassed and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. 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 Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children. The Police Inquiry and State Laws The arresting officers found proof that Lorincz had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit householders and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption 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 emergency call recordings of the caller calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal. Portrayal of the Accused The film does not really imply anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The production is presented as an illustration of how self-defense regulations lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator famously claimed made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much highlighted. Police Interrogation and Gun Culture It is feasible to watch the officer questioning segments 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? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they may have done in footage that were not included). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or toasters? Detention and Consequences For what seemed to her neighbors a extended period, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even provided accommodation 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 holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this could be effective? Final Outcome and Judgment It was not successful; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of U.S. justice and consequences.