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The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of headlights or torches as the police arrive, their expressions and tones expressing caution or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently catch sight of 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 are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

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 primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, 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 reportedly bothered and antagonized her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the authorities were repeatedly called, the accused fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to address her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The arresting officers found proof that the suspect had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which allow residents and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption of danger. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the scene before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – introduced by 911 audio material of the caller contacting authorities 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 imply anything too complex about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The film is presented as an example of how self-defense regulations generate senseless and tragic violence. But the fact of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel surprised at how little interest the police 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? 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 footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her local residents a extended period, the suspect was not even arrested and charged, only held and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another point of comparison, incidentally, with the a prior incident). And when she was finally formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not aggressively, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point led her to think that this could be effective?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the closing credits. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.