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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 possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what sometimes seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the Netflix real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of a Florida mother in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids reportedly bothered and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused fatally shot Owens through her closed front door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that the suspect had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit residents and others to shoot if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The documentary builds its story with the officer recordings captured during the repeated police visits to the scene before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage 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 extenuating circumstance. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws generate unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the fact of gun ownership and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit notoriously said made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished at how minimal concern the police took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? 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? Could it have been easily accessible and prepared? The police 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 gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

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 point of comparison, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor 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?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the end titles. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.