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The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and structure: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, witnesses and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or panic or indignation or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often catch sight of the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally 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 Netflix true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an social media personality 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 perpetrator. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, made exclusively of officer footage. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the tragic incident of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a African American woman whose children allegedly harassed and antagonized her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, the accused fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about hurling items at her children.

The Investigation and State Laws

The arresting officers found evidence that the suspect 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 scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The production is presented as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the fact of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit famously claimed made firearm fatalities 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? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? 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 police aren’t shown asking any of these undoubtedly important questions (though they could have inquired in recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her neighbors a extended period, the suspect 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 a prior incident). And when she was ultimately formally arrested in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which the individual simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air 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 closing credits. A very sombre picture of U.S. justice and consequences.