If you can imagine a scene in Sanford, Fla., on the rainy night of Feb. 26, 2012, when the Sanford police were called to a scene where a young Black man was standing with his hands up with a holstered gun and a young White man lay dead on the ground, do you think the immediate outcome would have been the same?
Could the young Black man have told police that he shot the young White man in self-defense? Could he have invoked the “Stand your ground” law to be released without any charges? Certainly not! He would have been arrested and charged with murder on the spot.
George Zimmerman first saw Trayvon Martin walking home from a local 7-Eleven store after purchasing a bag of Skittles candy and an ice tea for his little brother. Zimmerman evidently had a racial mind-set that only Blacks that he was familiar with belonged in this gated community. He didn’t know Trayvon, so he assumed that he was an intruder. He reported his findings to the local police and was instructed not to follow Martin. Contrary to his instructions, Zimmerman did follow him and as a result of following him, got involved in a scuffle, pulled a gun and shot Martin dead. That was premeditated, cold-blooded murder.
There were no immediate legal consequences to this shooting because Zimmerman who, according to America’s ethnic designations, is White, had just shot and killed a Black intruder in his gated community.
The police and investigators readily accepted Zimmerman’s account of the incident and, therefore, didn’t bother to do a full house-to-house inquiry about the dead child on the ground, because Zimmerman had already described him as an intruder. Instead they took Martin to the morgue and labeled him a “John Doe.” The police discovered the next day that Trayvon was a guest in the apartment complex when his father, Tracy Martin, filed a missing persons report.
A detective visited Trayvon’s father at his girlfriend’s house. “He asked me to sit down,” Martin recalls. “I sat down. He pulled out a picture of a young gentleman on the ground, dead, and asked me if that was my son. And I confirmed that it was Trayvon. And since that confirmation, it’s been a nightmare.”
Martin called his ex-wife with the news of their son’s death. “I didn’t actually believe what his dad told me,” Sybrina Fulton says. “I just didn’t believe it. That’s absolutely the worst call that a mother can receive. That her baby has been shot and killed.”
A young lady from Miami, who said she had known Trayvon since kindergarten, talked on the phone with him on the night of Feb. 26. The 16-year-old said Trayvon described a man who was “crazy and creepy” and on the phone, watching him from a vehicle before starting to follow him on foot. She implored Trayvon, who said he put his sweatshirt hood up because of the rain, to run to the townhouse where he was staying with his father, his father’s girlfriend and her 14-year-old son.
Earlier, Trayvon had temporarily sought cover from the rain by one of the buildings. “I could hear the wind blowing” and “he said he lost him.” “He was breathing hard,” she said, and “his voice kind of changed. I know he was scared. His voice was getting kind of low.”
The girl said that Trayvon, after evading Zimmerman for a while, noticed that he was being pursued again and mentioned this to her. A sense of urgency grew. Trayvon alerted the girl to the fact that Zimmerman “was getting close to him.” She strongly urged him to run, but she could tell he did not because he was out of breath and tired, and kept saying he was close to the townhouse where he was a guest.
She then heard Trayvon ask, “Why are you following me for?” She heard the other man ask, “What are you doing around here?” After calling out “Trayvon” several times over the phone, and getting no response, she heard somebody bump Trayvon. She said that she heard rising fear in Trayvon’s voice that peaked with words like “get off, get off,” right before she lost contact with him, and he was shot to death.
One police document contained in the discovery concluded, “The encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement, or conversely if he had identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and initiated dialogue in an effort to dispel each party’s concerns.” It added, “There is no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter.”
The filing of the missing persons report by Trayvon’s father triggered a myriad of defense mechanisms employed by the SPD.
Here’s what probably happened–a mixture of facts and personal analysis:
While in his vehicle on a personal errand, Zimmerman noticed Martin walking inside the community. Zimmerman called the Sanford Police Department.
Dispatcher: Sanford Police Department….
Zimmerman: Hey we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there’s a real suspicious guy, uh, [near] Retreat View Circle, um, the best address I can give you is 111 Retreat View Circle. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.
Dispatcher: OK, and this guy is he White, Black, or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks Black.
Dispatcher: Did you see what he was wearing?
Zimmerman: Yeah. A dark hoodie, like a gray hoodie, and either jeans or sweat pants and white tennis shoes. He’s [unintelligible], he was just staring.
Dispatcher: OK, he’s just walking around the area.
Zimmerman: . . . looking at all the houses.
Dispatcher: OK . . . .
Zimmerman: Now he’s just staring at me.
Dispatcher: OK, you said it’s 1111 Retreat View? Or 111?
Zimmerman: That’s the clubhouse . . . .
Dispatcher: That’s the clubhouse, do you know that-he’s near the clubhouse right now?
Zimmerman: Yeah, now he’s coming towards me.
Dispatcher: OK.
Zimmerman: He’s got his hand in his waistband. And he’s a Black male.
Dispatcher: How old would you say he looks?
Zimmerman: …late teens.
Dispatcher: Late teens OK.
Zimmerman: Something’s wrong with him. Yup, he’s coming to check me out, he’s got something in his hands, I don’t know what his deal is.
Dispatcher: Just let me know if he does anything.
Zimmerman: How long until you get an officer over here?
Dispatcher: Yeah, we’ve got someone on the way, just let me know if this guy does anything else.
Zimmerman: OK. These assholes they always get away. When you come to the clubhouse you come straight in and make a left. Actually you would go past the clubhouse.
Dispatcher: So it’s on the left-hand side from the clubhouse?
Zimmerman: No you go in straight through the entrance and then you make a left . . . uh you go straight in, don’t turn, and make a left. Shit, he’s running.
Dispatcher: He’s running? Which way is he running?
Zimmerman: Down towards the other entrance to the neighborhood.
Dispatcher: Which entrance is that that he’s heading towards?
Zimmerman: The back entrance….
Dispatcher: Are you following him?
Zimmerman: Yeah
Dispatcher: OK, we don’t need you to do that.
Zimmerman: OK
Dispatcher: All right sir, what is your name?
Zimmerman: George. He ran.
Dispatcher: All right, George, what’s your last name?
Zimmerman: Zimmerman
Dispatcher: And George what’s the phone number you’re calling from?
Dispatcher: All right George we do have them on the way, do you want to meet with the officer when they get out there? All right, where are you going to meet with them at?
Zimmerman: If they come in through the gate, tell them to go straight past the club house, and uh, straight past the clubhouse and make a left, and then they go past the mailboxes, that’s my truck. . . .[unintelligible]
Dispatcher: What address are you parked in front of?
Zimmerman: I don’t know; it’s a cut through so I don’t know the address.
Dispatcher: OK, do you live in the area?
Zimmerman: Yeah, I . . . .[unintelligible]
Dispatcher: What’s your apartment number?
Dispatcher: OK, do you want to just meet with them right near the mailboxes then?
Zimmerman: Yeah, that’s fine.
Dispatcher: All right George, I’ll let them know to meet you around there OK?
Zimmerman: Actually could you have them call me, and I’ll tell them where I’m at?
Dispatcher: OK, no problem, I’ll let them know to call you when they’re in the area.
Zimmerman: Thanks. Dispatcher: You’re welcome.
At this point Zimmerman, seeing that Trayvon had run, decided to find him and detain him for the Sanford police. Trayvon was probably ducking in and out between houses trying to shake Zimmerman.
Meantime Trayvon was on his cell phone talking to his friend in Miami and telling her he was being followed. Zimmerman finally caught up to Trayvon and confronted him.
Zimmerman made the holstered gun visible in an attempt to intimidate Trayvon who started to run away again. Zimmerman tackled him grabbing Martin by the arm. Trayvon, seeing the holstered gun, feared for his life and began screaming for help hoping his father or someone would come to his rescue. In desperation during the scuffle, Trayvon took a swing at Zimmerman with his cell phone and scored a punch to Zimmerman’s face knocking him to the ground. Zimmerman had such a grip on Trayvon’s arm that he pulled the teen to the ground with him. Trayvon managed to punch himself free while Zimmerman was reaching for his gun. As Trayvon rose to get up and run again, Zimmerman had gotten the gun free from its holster and fired point blank into Trayvon’s chest. Trayvon fell face down on the ground. He was in that position when the Sanford police arrived. After a brief questioning of Zimmerman at the scene, Sanford police shipped Trayvon Martin off to the city morgue as a “John Doe” while his father, Tracy Martin, was in a nearby apartment awaiting his return from the 7-Eleven.
Zimmerman’s assumption that Trayvon was an intruder, up to no good, and on drugs or something, clearly points to racism as his motivation in this incident.
Mark O’Mara, defense attorney for George Zimmerman wants to put Trayvon Martin on trial under the assumption that Trayvon was a violent, pot-smoking, gun-toting teenager.
Pictures released by Zimmerman’s defense attorney [showing Trayvon smoking or an unidentified hand on a gun] have been floating around on the Internet and on CNN newscasts. The assumption the defense seems to be making is if Trayvon Martin smoked weed, and or had a fascination with guns, Zimmerman was justified in killing him while assuming he was somewhere he did not belong.
Funny thing is, in America, those assumptions could stand up. Those assumptions have been supported by nearly a half million dollars in contributions to Zimmerman’s defense fund.
The Trayvon Martin best known to his parents, community and friends looks more like the ones below. When Trayvon was just 9 he ran into a burning house to save his father’s life.
According to a records search on Zimmerman, he was previously arrested for domestic violence, resisting an officer without violence and most shockingly, resisting an officer with violence–a felony charge that surely should have landed him in prison.
By Walter Smith
