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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. Countenances of those harmed, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or flashlights as the police arrive, their faces and voices expressing wariness or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. 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 extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

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 partner, whose primary focus 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, made exclusively of officer footage. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the tragic incident of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a African American woman whose four young kids reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were repeatedly called, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her locked door, when Owens went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found proof that the suspect had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow residents 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 multiple officer calls to the scene before the killing, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz contacting authorities in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really imply anything too complex about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an illustration of how self-defense regulations lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the reality of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning 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. When did she buy her gun? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? Where did she store it in the house? Could it have been easily accessible and prepared? The police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they may have done in footage 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, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only held and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, by the way, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not aggressively, 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 led her to think that this might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the panel's decision is revealed in the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.