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The true crime category has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and potential offenders appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or flashlights as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or fear or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like remarkable hesitation – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the streaming service true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, composed entirely of officer footage. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a African American woman whose four young kids allegedly harassed and tormented 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 locked door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Investigation 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 shoot if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage captured during the repeated police visits to the location before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings 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 documentary does not really suggest anything too complex about the neighbor, or any extenuating circumstance. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator notoriously said made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) 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. At what time did she purchase the firearm? 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 undoubtedly important questions (though they may have done in footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what seemed to her neighbors a very long time, Lorincz was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not aggressively, 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 could be effective?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of American crime and punishment.