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The real-life crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or torches as the police arrive, their faces and voices expressing wariness or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently catch sight of the faces of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the streaming service real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an social media personality by her boyfriend, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the suspect. 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 Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose four young kids reportedly bothered and antagonized her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused fatally shot Owens 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 State Laws

The arresting officers found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of threat. The documentary builds its story with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the location before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by 911 audio material of Lorincz contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film is presented as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic violence. But the fact of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit notoriously said made gun deaths 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 astonished at how little interest the officers 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 police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in footage that were not included). Or is possessing a firearm so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what seemed to her local residents 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 parallel, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally officially taken into custody in the holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose psychological state 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?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the closing credits. A very sombre picture of U.S. justice and consequences.