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The true crime category has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, observers and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, sometimes in the harsh glare of headlights or flashlights as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we often incidentally glimpse the expressions of the law enforcement personnel, one waiting impassively while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like remarkable hesitation – though perhaps this is because they know they are being recorded.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the streaming service real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed surprisingly lenient with the suspect. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, made exclusively of officer footage. Now comes a new film by Geeta Gandbhir about the grim case of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose children reportedly bothered and tormented her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, the accused 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 Investigation and State Laws

The investigating authorities found proof that the suspect had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which permit householders and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption 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 horrific and chaotic incident site itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of the caller contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a chilly, queasy fascination.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The film is presented as an illustration of how “stand your ground” laws generate senseless and tragic bloodshed. But the fact of firearm possession and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a deceased pundit notoriously said made gun deaths a necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Police Interrogation and Firearm Norms

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel astonished at how minimal concern the police took in this point. 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? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The police aren’t shown asking any of these surely relevant questions (though they may have done in recordings that were not included). Or is gun ownership so commonplace it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her local residents a very long time, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only detained and even offered a hotel stay away from home for the night (another parallel, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally officially taken into custody in the holding cell, there is an remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the cuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose psychological state means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point encouraged her to think that this might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

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