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The true crime genre has an innovative format, 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 vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices expressing caution or panic or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they are aware 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 boyfriend, whose main point of interest 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 body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids allegedly harassed and antagonized her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were summoned multiple times, the accused fatally shot Owens through her closed front door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found evidence that Lorincz had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit residents and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption of threat. The documentary builds its story with the officer recordings generated during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – introduced by 911 audio material of the caller calling the police in a dramatically trembling 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 suggest anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The production is showcased as an example of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit notoriously said made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how little interest the police took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? Where did she store it in the house? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? 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 kitchen appliances or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared 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, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally formally arrested in the detention area, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of American crime and punishment.