NorthIowaToday.com

Founded in 2010

News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region

Man says his son, involved in shooting incident, is not racist, did not confront victim

By Rene Stutzman, The Orlando Sentinel –

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Sanford neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, did not instigate the encounter, but has received death threats and moved out of his home, his father told The Orlando Sentinel Thursday.

(PHOTO: Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the Miami teenager who was killed by a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida. The family came to the Miami Herald for an interview on Thursday, March 15, 2012.)

George Zimmerman, 28, has not been arrested, something that has put him and the Sanford Police Department at the center of a firestorm. Critics say Trayvon, who was visiting family from his home in Miami, was a victim of racial profiling.

Zimmerman’s father, 64-year-old Robert Zimmerman of Lake Mary, delivered a one-page letter to the Sentinel Thursday, saying that the depiction of his son in the media has been cruel and misleading.

George Zimmerman is Latino and has grown up in a multi-racial family, the statement says.

“The media portrayal of George as a racist could not be further from the truth,” the letter says. “He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever.”

The letter does not provide details about what happened Feb. 26 on a walkway in the gated community where George Zimmerman lives and where Trayvon was visiting. But it does challenge one basic assumption: that Zimmerman got out of his SUV to confront Trayvon after calling police to report a suspicious person.

“At no time did George follow or confront Mr. Martin. When the true details of the event became public, and I hope that will be soon, the letter said, “everyone should be outraged by the treatment of George Zimmerman in the media.”

Police have released little information about what happened that night and no details about how Trayvon and Zimmerman came to be face to face.

What is known, though, is that Zimmerman called police from his SUV then left it and encountered Trayvon on foot as the teenager returned from a 7-Eleven candy run.

Before an officer arrived, Trayvon and Zimmerman got into a fight, according to police, witnesses heard one or both calling for help, and Zimmerman shot Trayvon once with a 9mm handgun.

Zimmerman told police he acted in self defense. Police found blood on his face and the back of his head as well as grass on the back of his shirt.

That jibes with what Cheryl Brown’s teenage son witnessed while walking his dog that night. Thirteen-year-old Austin stepped out his front door and heard people fighting, he told The Orlando Sentinel on Thursday.

“I heard screaming and crying for help,” he said. “I heard, ‘Help me.’”

It was dark, and the boy did not see how the fight started, in fact, he only saw one person, a man in a red shirt — Zimmerman — who was on the ground.

The boy said he is not sure who called for help. After a moment, his dog escaped, he turned to catch it and a few seconds later heard a gunshot, he said.

“When I heard the shot, the screaming stopped,” he said.

He then rushed inside and told his sister to call police.

In his letter, Robert Zimmerman wrote that what happened that night was “tragic … and very sad for all concerned. The Martin family, our family and the entire community have been forever changed.”

George Zimmerman has not talked publicly about what happened, his father said, because that’s the advice police gave him. Both Zimmerman families have moved out of their homes, at least temporarily, Robert Zimmerman said, because they’ve received death threats.

Police on Tuesday turned the case over to the state attorney’s office, saying they did not have evidence to justify George Zimmerman’s arrest on a charge of manslaughter.

Prosecutors will now likely spend several weeks studying the case before making a decision on whether to charge Zimmerman.

Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. told the Sentinel Thursday night that he has invited the U.S. Department of Justice and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to review the investigation.

“It’s an open book,” Lee said. “If they want to look at what we did and how we did it and what information we have, they’re welcome to it.”

The FDLE is waiting for a formal letter from the state attorney’s office, said spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

Sanford police on Thursday also challenged a WFTV-Channel 9 report in which Mary Cutcher said police largely ignored her even though she told them, “I know this was not self-defense. There was no punching, no hitting going on at the time, no wrestling.”

Police said they twice tried to interview her without success, that the third time she wrote a very short sworn statement for her roommate and that it was consistent with Zimmerman’s account.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Even more news:

Watercooler
Copyright 2024 – Internet Marketing Pros. of Iowa, Inc.
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x