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The real-life crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and structure: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, witnesses and potential offenders appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the police arrive, their expressions and tones expressing caution or panic or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we often incidentally glimpse the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they know they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the streaming service true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose primary focus was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed surprisingly lenient with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, composed entirely of body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the tragic incident of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a African American woman whose four young kids reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighborhood conflicts in which the authorities were repeatedly called, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her locked door, when the victim went to the neighbor's residence to address her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found proof that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of danger. The documentary constructs its narrative with the officer recordings captured during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the killing, and then at the disturbing and disordered incident site itself – prefaced by 911 audio material of Lorincz contacting authorities in a melodramatically shaky voice. There is also police cell footage of the individual which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The film does not really suggest anything too complex about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is obviously disturbed, although the kids are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film is showcased as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the fact of firearm possession and the second amendment (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator famously claimed made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning 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 point. When did she buy her gun? 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? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they could have inquired in footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or bread heaters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her local residents a extended period, Lorincz was not even arrested and charged, only held and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, by the way, with the a prior incident). And when she was ultimately formally arrested in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply declines to rise, will not extend her arms 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 could be effective?

Conclusion and Verdict

It didn’t; and the jury’s verdict is saved for the end titles. A deeply sobering portrayal of American crime and punishment.