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The real-life crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or flashlights as the officers approach, their expressions and tones expressing wariness or panic or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the expressions 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 are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the Netflix true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an social media personality by her boyfriend, whose main point of interest was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the perpetrator. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, made exclusively of body cam film. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids reportedly bothered and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were summoned multiple times, 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 State Laws

The arresting officers found evidence that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit residents and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption of danger. The documentary builds its story with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also jail video of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Portrayal of the Accused

The film does not really suggest anything too complex about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film is showcased as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how little interest the officers 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 undoubtedly important questions (though they could have inquired in footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared 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, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally formally arrested in the detention area, there is an remarkable scene in which the individual simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not aggressively, 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 might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the end titles. A very sombre picture of U.S. justice and consequences.