🔗 Share this article

The true crime genre has an innovative format, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Faces of victims, witnesses and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of headlights or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of wariness or fear or anger or dubiously feigned naivety. And we frequently catch sight of the expressions of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively 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.

An Emerging Pattern in Documentary Filmmaking

We have previously seen the Netflix real-life crime film American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an social media personality by her partner, whose primary focus was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the police seemed extraordinarily lax with the suspect. There is also Bill Morrison’s Oscar-nominated short Incident, composed entirely of officer footage. Now comes Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary about the tragic incident of a Florida mother in a city in Florida, a woman of colour whose children allegedly harassed and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an increasing number of neighborhood conflicts in which the police were summoned multiple times, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her locked door, when the victim went to Lorincz’s house to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The arresting officers found evidence that Lorincz had done online research into the state's self-defense statutes, which allow residents and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption of threat. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage 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 the caller contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also police cell footage of Lorincz which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Portrayal of the Accused

The film does not really suggest anything too complicated about Lorincz, or any mitigating factors. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an ugly jibe. The film is showcased as an illustration of how self-defense regulations lead to senseless and tragic violence. 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 necessary cost) is not much emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Gun Culture

It is feasible to watch the officer questioning segments here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the police took in this aspect. When did she buy her gun? Where (if anywhere) did she train in its use? 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 authorities aren’t shown asking any of these undoubtedly important questions (though they may have done in recordings that were not included). Or is gun ownership so normal it would be like asking about kitchen appliances or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what appeared to her neighbors a very long time, Lorincz was not even arrested and charged, only detained and even provided accommodation away from home for the night (another point of comparison, by the way, 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, refuses to put her wrists out for the cuffs, 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 might actually work?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the panel's decision is revealed in the closing credits. A very sombre portrayal of U.S. justice and consequences.