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The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, observers and potential offenders loom up to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of headlights or torches as the officers approach, their expressions and tones expressing wariness or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the expressions of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other asks the questions with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – 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 Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, whose main point of interest was officer recordings 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, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of a Florida mother in Ocala, Florida, a African American woman whose four young kids reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, Lorincz fatally shot Owens through her locked door, when the victim 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 Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit householders and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of danger. The movie constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the repeated police visits to the location before the killing, and then at the horrific and chaotic incident site itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of Lorincz calling the police 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 film does not really imply anything too complex about the neighbor, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The film is showcased as an example of how “stand your ground” laws generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the fact of gun ownership and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator notoriously said made gun deaths a necessary cost) 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 aspect. When did she buy her gun? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? 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 undoubtedly important questions (though they may have done in footage that were not included). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what seemed to her neighbors 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 ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Had the kid-gloves treatment 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 portrayal of American crime and punishment.