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The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices expressing wariness or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps 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 The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an social media personality by her boyfriend, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the perpetrator. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, made exclusively of body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, a African American woman whose children reportedly bothered and antagonized her white neighbour, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her closed front door, when Owens went to the neighbor's residence to address her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The arresting officers 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 threat. The documentary builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller contacting authorities in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Portrayal of the Accused

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The film is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the fact of gun ownership and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel surprised at how little interest the police took in this point. 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 surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in recordings that were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her neighbors a very long time, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another parallel, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally formally arrested 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 psychological state means that she is unable to comply. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point led her to think that this could be effective?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the end titles. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.