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The true crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or flashlights as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or panic or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often incidentally glimpse the expressions of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Documentary Filmmaking

We have already had the streaming service real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose main point of interest was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed extraordinarily lax with the suspect. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, made exclusively of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of a Florida mother in Ocala, Florida, a African American woman whose children reportedly bothered and antagonized her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, the accused fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of danger. The documentary constructs its narrative with the body cam footage captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of Lorincz calling the police in a dramatically trembling 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 complicated about the neighbor, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film 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 longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) 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 officers 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? 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 surely relevant questions (though they may have done in recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what seemed to her neighbors a extended period, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately formally arrested in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz 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 is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point led 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 very sombre picture of U.S. justice and consequences.