🔗 Share this article

The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a completely fresh vocabulary and grammar: police body cam footage. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and possible perpetrators loom up to the cameras, at times in the harsh glare of headlights or torches as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or panic or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently incidentally glimpse the faces of the officers themselves, one standing by blankly while the other conducts the inquiry with what occasionally seems like extraordinary diffidence – though maybe this is because they are aware they are being recorded.

An Emerging Pattern in Non-Fiction Cinema

We have already had the Netflix true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the killing of an social media personality 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, 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 four young kids reportedly bothered and tormented her neighbor, Susan Lorincz. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were repeatedly called, the accused shot Owens dead through her locked door, when Owens went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about throwing objects at her children.

The Investigation and Legal Context

The investigating authorities found proof that the suspect had done online research into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which allow householders and others to use firearms if there is a significant presumption of danger. The documentary builds its story with the officer recordings generated during the multiple officer calls to the scene before the shooting, and then at the disturbing and disordered crime scene itself – introduced by emergency call recordings of Lorincz contacting authorities in a dramatically trembling voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.

Portrayal of the Accused

The film does not really suggest anything too complex about Lorincz, or any extenuating circumstance. She is clearly unstable, although the children are heard calling her “the Karen”, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an example of how self-defense regulations lead to unnecessary and heartbreaking 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 emphasized.

Officer Questioning and Firearm Norms

It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how little interest the police took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? Did she receive any instruction on handling it? Had she ever had occasion to fire it before? Where did she store it in the house? 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 footage that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or toasters?

Arrest and Aftermath

For what seemed to her local residents a extended period, the suspect was not even taken into custody and indicted, only held and even offered a hotel stay 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 remarkable scene in which Lorincz simply refuses to stand, will not extend her arms for the handcuffs, not aggressively, but with the politely self-pitying air of someone whose mental health means that she just can’t do it. Did the gentle handling up until that point led her to think that this could be effective?

Final Outcome and Judgment

It was not successful; and the jury’s verdict is revealed in the end titles. A very sombre picture of American crime and punishment.