It is 7 p.m. on February 26th 2012. George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch member in the town of Sanford, Florida, calls 911 to report “a suspicious person” in his gated community. Zimmerman says he is following a young man, who turns out to be Trayvon Martin, after the man started to run, forcing the 911 dispatcher to tell Zimmerman, “We don’t need you to do that.” Zimmerman follows Martin anyway, but then says he has lost sight of him.
At about 7:10 pm, Martin’s phone records show he was on the phone with his girlfriend around the time he saw Zimmerman while returning on foot from a convenience store to his father’s fiancé’s home.
To make things interesting, at a news conference, on March 20th, the Martins’ family attorney Benjamin Crump says that Trayvons’ girlfriend heard someone ask Martin what he was doing and Martin asking why the person was following him. The girl got the impression that there was an altercation, during which the earpiece fell from Martin’s ear and the signal went bad.
According to a story later confirmed by Sanford police, Zimmerman tells the police that, after he lost track of Martin, Martin approached him. After they exchanged some words, Zimmerman says that he reached for his cell phone, and then Martin punched him in the nose. Also, Zimmerman says Martin pinned him to the ground and began slamming his head into the sidewalk.
Shortly after, at about 7:25 pm, Martin is shot and killed.
When police searched Martin, at the time of his death, he was unarmed and carrying a small amount of cash, a bag of Skittles candy and a can of iced tea.
Many of the neighbors of the gated community called 911 to report the incident. But at 7:30 pm, Zimmerman tells police he shot Martin in self-defense. Officer Timothy Smith writes in a police report that Zimmerman is bleeding from the nose and back of the head.
On March 8th, The Martin family members and attorneys hold a news conference calling attention to the case but Police Chief Bill Lee says Zimmerman has not been charged because there is no evidence to weaken his account of the events.
Reports say on March 14th, the police had ended their investigation and given the file over to the state lawyer, who will decide whether to press charges. A few days later, authorities released 911 calls to police from the night of the shooting. In one of the recordings, Zimmerman says he is following Martin. In another one of the recordings, a voice can be heard in the background screaming “Help, help!” followed by the sound of a gunshot. Because of this, the U.S. Department of Justice announces that it has started an investigation into Martin’s death. But later on, voice analysis specialists say the voice screaming was actually Zimmerman.
After many different accusations, and almost a month later on April 11th, Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
The case against Zimmerman claims he “profiled” Martin, and ignored a police operator’s request that he should wait for the police. Zimmerman’s relatives and supporters say that he did not “profile” Martin and that he shot him in self-defense. They say Zimmerman killed Martin after Martin punched him and slammed his head on the sidewalk. Then on April 20th, Zimmerman apologized to Martin’s family in open court. Soon after, a Florida judge set bail at $150,000, allowing Zimmerman the chance to get out of jail while he awaits trial.
I would like a point out that in Florida, one can apply for a permit to carry a hand gun at all times. If Florida allows this to go on, why should the media and the public be surprised that a situation like this one would happen?
I feel that the media is overreacting and taking this whole case out of proportion. A good example of this is the whole speculation of Zimmerman “profiling” Martin and allegedly saying a racial slur while on the phone with 911. Later on, this was completely forgotten about and dropped once the media found out Zimmerman wasn’t Caucasian, and that he came from a multicultural family.
People have been trying to make Zimmerman out to be this evil racist, when in a reality, I think that this is what really happened: Zimmerman was just a nosy neighborhood watch member making sure nothing was going on and when he confronted Martin, an argument occurred and Martin started to get physical; Zimmerman got scared, and shot him. Simple as that. The media is just making the situation more complicated than it actually is.
