A teen shot to death in February by a neighborhood watch captain, Trayvon Martin, lived in a suburb of Orlando, Florida. The family’s attorney has since told the media that the violent past of the neighborhood watch captain was never released to them until now by police. George Zimmerman admitted that he shot Martin on February 26 after calling 911 to tell police about a suspicious person. Zimmerman claims that the shooting took place in self-defense. The attorney for the Martin family is Benjamin Crump.
The father of the teen, Tracy Martin, was told by police that Zimmerman had a ‘squeaky-clean’ record and that is why he has not been charged yet. Zimmerman was arrested back in 2005 in Orange County for resisting arrest using violence and battery on a law enforcement officer, according to public records. The records were found with the Orange County Clerk of Courts. The charges were filed in July of 2005 but were dropped. Martin was only 17-years-old at the time of the shooting, which took place in Sanford.
“They just lied to the family,” Crump said. “They just couldn’t see why [Zimmerman] would do anything wrong or be violent. But not only do you know the guy killed this kid, because he admitted to it, you knew that he has a propensity for violence because of his past record.”
Tracy Martin said in an interview last week that he was told by officers that:
“They respected [Zimmerman’s] background, that he studied criminal justice for four years and that he was squeaky clean. My question to them was, did they run my child’s background check? They said yes. I asked them what they came up with, and they said nothing. So I asked if Zimmerman had a clean record, did that give him the right to shoot and kill an unarmed kid?”
A public records lawsuit has been filed by Crump so he could acquire the 911 tapes from the night Martin was killed. Police say that Zimmerman began following the teen using his car. Martin was walking back from a convenience store during halftime of the NBA All-Star game.
Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee said that Zimmerman reported a suspicious person to 911. “For some reason he felt that Trayvon, the way that he was walking or appeared, seemed suspicious to him,” Lee said. “He called this in and at one part of this initial call [the dispatcher] recommends him not to follow Trayvon. A police officer is on the way at that point.”
Lee said that Zimmerman decided to follow Martin anyway, which is when a confrontation occurred, leading Zimmerman to shoot the teenager.