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The real-life crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of headlights or torches as the officers approach, their expressions and tones eloquent of caution or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently catch sight of the faces of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the streaming service true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an social media personality by her boyfriend, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, 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 African American woman whose four young kids reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were repeatedly called, the accused shot Owens dead through her locked door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The arresting officers found evidence that the suspect had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The documentary builds its story with the body cam footage captured during the repeated police visits to the scene before the killing, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of the caller contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession 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 highlighted.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the police took in this aspect. 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 didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her neighbors a very long time, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply refuses to stand, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not aggressively, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point encouraged her to think that this could be effective?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.