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The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of headlights or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often catch sight of the faces of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the streaming service real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an Instagram influencer by her partner, 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 body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the tragic incident of a Florida mother in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, Lorincz 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 State Laws

The arresting officers found proof that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit residents and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of threat. The movie constructs its narrative with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really imply anything too complex 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 showcased as an example of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the reality of firearm possession and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit famously claimed 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 point. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? 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 authorities 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 normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her local residents a very long time, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, by the way, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody 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 hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of American crime and punishment.