George Zimmerman Describes Exactly What Happened During the Trayvon Martin Altercation
Posted by Media Outrage on June 21st, 2012
George Zimmerman gave his blow-by-blow account of the physical altercation that led to the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Details
(CNN) – In an initial interview with police just after the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman described a life-and-death struggle that began when the youth “jumped out from the bushes.”
The audio of the February 26 interview, made public late Wednesday, is part of discovery items released by Zimmerman’s defense team. Zimmerman said Martin punched him repeatedly in the face.
“I started screaming for help. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe,” he said.
“He grabbed my head and started hitting it into the sidewalk,” he said. “When he started doing that, I slid into the grass to try to get out from under him. … I’m still yelling for help.”
Martin, he said, put his hand over Zimmerman’s mouth and nose and told him, “You’re going to die tonight.”
“When I slid, my jacket and my shirt came up, and when he said, ‘You’re going to die tonight,’ I felt his hand go down my side, and I thought he was going for my firearm, so I grabbed it immediately, and as he banged my head again, I just pulled out my firearm and shot him.”
When he did, he said Martin, who had been on top of him, fell away and said, “All right. You got it. You got it.”
Zimmerman, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in Martin’s February 26 shooting death. Zimmerman has said he shot Martin in self-defense, but Martin’s family and civil rights activists from across the country said that Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, racially profiled Martin and ignored a 911 dispatcher’s advice not to follow him.
More evidence to be released in Trayvon Martin case, judge rules
Zimmerman said in the interview he was driving to the grocery store February 26 when he saw Martin walking in his neighborhood. He said he pulled over and called a police nonemergency number “to report a suspicious person.”
He noted there had been some burglaries in the area, prompting him to start a neighborhood watch program. He said he had never seen Martin before and thought it odd that although it was raining, “he was just walking casually, not like he was trying to get out of the rain.”
Prosecutors: Jail phone transcripts show Zimmerman, wife talking in code
As he spoke to the dispatcher, he said Martin circled his vehicle but he “lost visual of him.” At the same time, he said the dispatcher asked him his location. He said he wasn’t sure of the name of the street he was on and got out of the vehicle to look for a street sign or an address on a home.
The dispatcher asked him if he was following Martin, he said, and he replied that he was “trying to find out where he went.” The dispatcher told him, “We don’t need you to do that,” noting an officer was en route, he said.
Zimmeman said he was heading back to the vehicle when Martin jumped out, asking him, “What the f—’s your problem?”
He said he told Martin, “I don’t have a problem,” but the youth replied, “Now you have a problem,” and attacked him. He said he fell backward after being punched in the nose, and “he was wailing on my head.”
Zimmerman told police he yelled for help repeatedly and heard one man say he was going to call 911.
“I screamed ‘Help me’ probably 50 times, as loud as I could,” he said.
Timeline of events in Trayvon Martin case
In a written statement Zimmerman gave to police, also released late Wednesday, Zimmerman said Martin told him to “shut the f— up” during the struggle.
“Each time I attempted to sit up, the suspect slammed my head into the sidewalk,” he wrote. “My head felt like it was going to explode.”
He wrote he felt Martin “reach for my now exposed firearm” as the teen threatened his life and cursed at him.
Mediaoutrage- Your thoughts???
June 21st, 2012 at 10:18 pm
Oh please! How does a grown man with a gun need to protect himself from an unarmed teenager? I don’t believe a word that comes out of this dudes mouth.
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LowRidaz Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 9:24 am
and to be honest, neither do I, him and his wife lied about to much, and sneaky about finances, so who knows if he is telling truth here, i dont believe shit, and i cant believe he was that fucking helpless and not fighting back, please. screaming help like a bitch but followed the dude when asked to back off, you still following him, of course that kid is gonna ask you what the fuck is your problem, he just found out what an ass whipping feel like from a young black kid, he did what he wanted to do, and that was shoot to kill. he full of shit and his wife and father, fuck them all
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River Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Exactly.
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June 22nd, 2012 at 12:58 am
Weird as it sound…Zimmerman could be telling the truth. But no way am I’m justifying the death of a child. Very unfortunate that the whole thing even took place.
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BrittBrattIsIgnoringIGNANTPeople Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 2:19 am
*am I
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June 22nd, 2012 at 9:21 am
“I started screaming for help. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe,” he said.
“He grabbed my head and started hitting it into the sidewalk,” he said. “When he started doing that, I slid into the grass to try to get out from under him. … I’m still yelling for help.”
shouldnt of followed him, should of followed dispatchers orders and backed off, and still no reason to pull a gun an shoot you punk ass bitch. next time you will think twice about following someone, no one is gonna accept you following them, without asking what is your problem, so your head got slammed for a reason. next time dont be so quick to judge.
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June 22nd, 2012 at 10:56 am
for a nigga that got his repeatedly hit on a sidewalk he looked perfectly ok. im not buying into this story some racist whites probably made up. remember cops were trying to hide evidence from this case.
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LowRidaz Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 11:02 am
yea an the pics they finally did show of his so called wounds, did not appear to be from someone gettin their head slammed on a sidewalk repeatedly, if your head is slammed on concrete repeatedly, very hard, as hard as he said.. slammmed! hit shit would of been busted, and spolit, possibly a cracked skull, if not hemorraghing, and some more shit done, damn tongue probably come out of his head, he is a fucking liar and they need to see this bullshit. he is a fucking liar!!!
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River Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Right. If it was as bad as he claimed, he would have been laid up in ICU.
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