🔗 Share this article

The real-life crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, observers and potential offenders appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or panic or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often catch sight of the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the Netflix true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the slaying of an social media personality by her boyfriend, 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 officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a African American woman whose children reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts 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 confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow residents and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of threat. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of the caller contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The production is presented as an example of how self-defense regulations lead to senseless and tragic violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit famously claimed made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished at how little interest the officers took in this aspect. 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? 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 surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her local residents a very long time, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally 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 cuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air 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 could be effective?

Conclusion and Verdict

It was not successful; and the panel's decision is saved for the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of American crime and punishment.