The true crime genre has a new medium, or perhaps even a whole new language and grammar: officer-worn camera recordings. Countenances of those harmed, witnesses and possible perpetrators appear suddenly to the cameras, sometimes in the intense brightness of vehicle beams or flashlights as the officers approach, their faces and voices eloquent of caution or fear or anger or suspiciously contrived innocence. And we frequently catch sight of the faces of the officers themselves, one waiting impassively while the other asks the questions with what sometimes seems like extraordinary diffidence – though perhaps this is because they know they are being recorded.
We have previously seen the streaming service true-crime documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito, about the slaying of an Instagram influencer by her boyfriend, whose main point of interest was officer recordings and in which, as in this film, the law enforcement seemed extraordinarily lax with the perpetrator. There is also the acclaimed short film Incident by Bill Morrison, composed entirely 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 allegedly harassed and antagonized her neighbor, a local resident. In 2023, after an escalating series of neighbour-dispute incidents in which the police were summoned multiple times, Lorincz shot Owens dead through her closed front door, when Owens went to the neighbor's residence to confront her about hurling items at her children.
The arresting officers found evidence that Lorincz had done internet searches into Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, which permit residents and others to shoot if there is a significant presumption of danger. The movie builds its story with the body cam footage captured during the multiple officer calls to the scene 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 melodramatically shaky voice. There is also jail video of the individual which has a disturbing, unsettling appeal.
The film does not really imply anything too complicated about the neighbor, or any extenuating circumstance. She is obviously disturbed, although the children are heard calling her a derogatory term, an hurtful taunt. The production is presented as an illustration of how self-defense regulations generate unnecessary and heartbreaking bloodshed. But the reality of gun ownership and the second amendment (that longstanding U.S. legal right that a late commentator notoriously said made firearm fatalities a price worth paying) is not much emphasized.
It is possible to watch the police interrogation scenes here and feel surprised at how minimal concern the officers took in this aspect. At what time did she purchase the firearm? 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? Was it just on the couch, loaded and ready? The police aren’t shown asking any of these undoubtedly important questions (though they could have inquired in recordings that didn’t make the edit). Or is possessing a firearm so normal it would be like asking about microwaves or bread heaters?
For what seemed 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 point of comparison, incidentally, with the Gabby Petito case). And when she was finally formally arrested 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 aggressively, 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 encouraged her to think that this might actually work?
It didn’t; and the panel's decision is saved for the closing credits. A deeply sobering picture of U.S. justice and consequences.
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