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The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, witnesses and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the police arrive, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or panic or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the Netflix real-life crime film The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an social media personality 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 Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of officer footage. 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, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were summoned multiple times, the accused shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The arresting officers found evidence that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit residents and others to shoot if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The documentary 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 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.

Portrayal of the Accused

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complex about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The film is showcased as an example of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator famously claimed made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished 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 surely relevant questions (though they may have done in recordings that were not included). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her local residents a very long time, Lorincz was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, 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, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the end titles. A deeply sobering picture of American crime and punishment.