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The real-life crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Faces of victims, witnesses and potential offenders appear suddenly to the cameras, at times in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices expressing caution or fear or indignation or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently catch sight of the expressions of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly 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.

A Growing Trend in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have previously seen the Netflix true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an Instagram influencer by her partner, whose main point of interest was body cam footage and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the perpetrator. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, made exclusively of body cam film. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the grim case of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose children reportedly bothered and tormented her white neighbour, a local resident. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when Owens went to Lorincz’s house to address her about throwing objects at her children.

The Police Inquiry and State Laws

The arresting officers found proof that Lorincz had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow residents and others to use firearms if there is a reasonable belief of threat. The documentary constructs its narrative with the body cam footage generated during the repeated police visits to the scene before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of the caller calling the police in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Depiction of the Suspect

The documentary does not really suggest anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an ugly jibe. The production is showcased as an example of how “stand your ground” laws lead to senseless and tragic violence. But the reality of gun ownership and the constitutional right (that historic American constitutional privilege that a late commentator notoriously said made gun deaths a necessary cost) is not much highlighted.

Police Interrogation and Gun Culture

It is possible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel astonished at how little interest 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? Where did she store it in the house? Could it have been easily accessible and prepared? The authorities 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 normal it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?

Detention and Consequences

For what appeared 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 a prior incident). And when she was ultimately officially taken into custody in the detention area, there is an extraordinary sequence in which the individual simply declines to rise, refuses to put her wrists out for the handcuffs, not hostilely, but with the courteously pathetic demeanor of someone whose mental health means that she is unable to comply. Did the gentle handling up until that point led her to think that this could be effective?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It didn’t; and the panel's decision is revealed in the end titles. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.