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The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of vehicle beams or flashlights as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or panic or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently catch sight of the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the Netflix true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the killing of an social media personality by her partner, whose main point of interest was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, composed entirely of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of a Florida mother in Ocala, Florida, a woman of colour whose children allegedly harassed and tormented her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when Owens went to the neighbor's residence to address her about hurling items at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The investigating authorities 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 danger. The movie constructs its narrative with the body cam footage captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the shooting, and then at the horrific and chaotic crime scene itself – prefaced by emergency call recordings of the caller calling the police in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Portrayal of the Accused

The film does not really imply anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The production is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking violence. But the fact of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit notoriously said made gun deaths a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised 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? Was this the first time she discharged the weapon? 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 kitchen appliances or toasters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared to her neighbors a extended period, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the holding cell, there is an extraordinary sequence in which the individual simply refuses to stand, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. Had the kid-gloves treatment up until that point led 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 portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.