A video has been released showing George Zimmerman on the night he shot Trayvon Martin to death. The video was taken at the Sanford Police Department when Zimmerman was taken into custody following the shooting. Zimmerman is a neighborhood watch volunteer. The video shows that Zimmerman does not have any blood on his clothes or any bruises on his head or face. The clean face seen in the video does not follow the story he told police, which he claims Martin beat him up, warranting the shooting. Zimmerman told police that Martin attacked him from behind and he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense.
The statement given to police by Zimmerman said that he was in a death struggle with Martin before he shot him. Zimmerman also told police that he was punched in the nose and his head was pounded into the sidewalk by Martin. The video was recorded by cameras both inside and outside the police station that shows the face and head of Zimmerman very clearly and there are no injuries visible.
Zimmerman is the neighborhood watch captain for the Retreat at Twin Lakes, which is a gated community, and is 28-years-old. Zimmerman is seen in the video exiting a police vehicle with his hands cuffed behind him. On the video you can see that he is clean shaven and looks a couple of pounds lighter than he did in a mug shot from 2005 when he was charged with assaulting a police officer.
The school records of Martin were released earlier this week by officials in Miami. Those records show that Martin was in the middle of serving a 10-day suspension from school when he was shot and killed. School officials reportedly found an empty bag that had marijuana residue on it. Tracy Martin, the father of Trayvon, said, “I refuse to let them assassinate my son’s character. The question should not be why was he suspended from school, it should be why did this man kill him in cold blood.”
Martin was shot to death by Zimmerman on February 26 while he was walking towards the home of his father’s girlfriend not long after 7 p.m. Zimmerman called police to report a suspicious person and followed Martin, despite being told not to by police dispatchers. The dispatcher told Zimmerman “we don’t need you to do that.” Police reports recently released claim that Zimmerman exited his vehicle to follow Martin but he lost sight of the teenager. When Zimmerman returned to his vehicle he was attacked from behind, punched in the nose, and then had his head smashed into the sidewalk by Martin. This is when Zimmerman shot the teen with a 9 mm handgun he had on his person.
The funeral director who took care of Martin’s funeral said that there were no visible cuts or bruises on the hands of Martin, which would have signaled that there was a physical altercation between Martin and Zimmerman.
“I didn’t see any evidence he had been fighting anybody,” Richard Kurtz of Roy Mizell and Kurtz Funeral Home said.
