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The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes 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 often incidentally glimpse the expressions of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have already had the Netflix true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the slaying of an social media personality by her partner, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the suspect. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, made exclusively of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the tragic incident of a Florida mother in Ocala, Florida, a African American woman whose four young kids allegedly harassed and antagonized her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, the accused shot Owens dead through her locked door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The investigating authorities found evidence that Lorincz had done internet searches into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The documentary constructs its narrative with the body cam footage captured during the repeated police visits to the scene before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of the caller contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Portrayal of the Accused

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the kids are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The film is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a deceased pundit famously claimed made gun deaths a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is feasible 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? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? Where did she store it in the house? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The authorities 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 bread heaters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her local residents a extended period, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another parallel, by the way, with the a prior incident). 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 aggressively, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she just can’t do it. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this could be effective?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the closing credits. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.