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The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or panic or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often catch sight of the expressions of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the streaming service true-crime documentary The Gabby Petito Case, about the slaying 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 perpetrator. 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, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were summoned multiple times, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to address her about throwing objects at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The arresting officers found evidence that the suspect had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow residents and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The documentary builds its story with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the location before the killing, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz contacting authorities in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Portrayal of the Accused

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film is showcased as an example of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the reality of firearm possession and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is feasible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how little interest the officers took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? 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? 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 recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her neighbors a very long time, Lorincz was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another parallel, by the way, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an remarkable scene in which the individual simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not aggressively, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment 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 revealed in the end titles. A very sombre portrayal of American crime and punishment.