🔗 Share this article

The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of headlights or torches as the officers approach, their expressions and tones expressing wariness or panic or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often incidentally glimpse the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the streaming service real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, 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 surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, made exclusively of body cam film. 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 children reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, the accused shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when Owens went to the neighbor's residence to address her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found proof that Lorincz had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit residents and others to shoot if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of Lorincz calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

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 kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The production is showcased as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit notoriously said made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished at how little interest the officers took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? 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 authorities aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in recordings that were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her neighbors a very long time, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health 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 panel's decision is saved for the closing credits. A very sombre picture of U.S. justice and consequences.