By Rene Stutzman and Jeff Weiner, The Orlando Sentinel –
ORLANDO, Fla. — New records released by prosecutors in the George Zimmerman murder case show federal civil rights investigators interviewed dozens of his friends, neighbors and coworkers, but found no one who said Zimmerman was a racist.
FBI agents interviewed an array of people involved in Zimmerman’s life, including several coworkers. None said they had ever known him to show racial bias. One who saw him the day after the shooting said Zimmerman was “beat up physically and emotionally.”
Agents also interviewed Chris Serino, the Sanford police department’s lead investigator in the case. He told agents he believed Zimmerman had pursued Trayvon Martin “based on his attire,” and not “skin color.” Zimmerman, he said, has a “little hero complex” but is not a racist.
The FBI also talked to local gun shop and gun range managers. One said Zimmerman came in weeks after the shooting and said “his life was in danger and he needs more guns.” It was unclear if Zimmerman made any purchases.
Zimmerman’s ex-fiancee told the FBI Zimmerman “began to exhibit overly protective and territorial behavior” over her after their engagement. After they moved in together, the relationship “deteriorated,” she told agents. She also talked about incidents of violence between them, culminating when they filed domestic-violence injunctions against each other in 2005.
Zimmerman “often talked about wanting to be a police officer,” the ex-fiancee said. She said he never displayed racial bias that she was aware of, but “had a bad temper during their relationship.”
The new records show the FBI asked each person interviewed whether Zimmerman “displayed any bias, prejudice or irrational attitude against any class of citizen, religious, racial, gender or ethnic groups.” They all said he hadn’t. Coworkers described Zimmerman as “pleasant” and “outgoing.”
Special Prosecutor Angela Corey released another round of evidence in her second-degree murder case against Zimmerman, Thursday morning including a first look at what FBI agents have turned up in their civil rights investigation.
An early look at the evidence indicated that much of it had been released earlier.
Thursday’s evidence includes what Sanford police officers told Corey’s investigators once her office took over the case.
That includes Officer Tim Smith, the first officer on the scene.
He told an investigator that Zimmerman continued to bleed from the nose at police headquarters, even after he was cleaned up by paramedics..
Zimmerman’s back also was wet, and his clothes had grass on them, Smith said.
“I was yelling for help but no one would help me,” Smith quoted Zimmerman as saying.
Zimmerman also carried his concealed weapons permit in his wallet, Smith said.
Another officer who saw Zimmerman enter Sanford police headquarters after the shooting “did not notice any injury to Zimmerman’s nose,” but observed Zimmerman “was ‘grunting’ as if in pain.”
Authorities also interviewed Trayvon Martin’s cousin, who had spent time with the 17-year-old the day of the shooting. The cousin said he “did not see Trayvon smoke marijuana.”
One of Corey’s investigators asked the cousin to identify a voice crying for help in the background of a 911 call. It was “without a doubt ‘on a stack of Bibles’’’ Trayvon’s, the cousin said, according to documents.
Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, also identified the voice as her son’s. She also told investigators about the tattoos on Trayvon’s arms: praying hands, her name as well and the names of his grandmother and great-grandmother .
During a call to his 16-year-old Miami-area girlfriend, the girl told investigators that Trayvon said he missed his mother. He had been visiting Sanford for nearly a week, staying with his father’s girlfriend while his father spent much of the time working at a convention.
