Police have turned over the investigation into last month’s killing of Trayvon Martin, 17, to the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office.
The state of Florida will now determine if George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain from Sanford, Fla., will be charged in his death.
According to the Sanford Police Department, Zimmerman admitted that he shot Martin Feb. 26, as the teenager walked from a convenience store back to the gated community where his father lived. Zimmerman, the captain of the neighborhood watch, was patrolling and called 911 to report a suspicious person, police said. He was told to stand down and wait for police, according to officials but instead, Zimmerman followed the teenager, got into a physical altercation and ended up shooting him.
Zimmerman claimed the shooting was self-defense, and police said they have little evidence to refute his claims. Next, the state attorney will determine if Zimmerman’s burden of self-defense has been reached.
“State Attorney Norm Wolfinger recognizes that Trayvon Martin and his family, interested persons, and the public-at-large are entitled to no less than a thorough, deliberate and just review of the information provided, along with any other evidence that may or may not be developed in the course of the review process,” a statement released from the State Attorney’s Offices Tuesday evening said. “We intend to honor that commitment.”
The shift from local to state officials comes amid suspicion about the department’s investigating techniques, according to reports. The case outraged many residents of Sanford, which is about 20 miles north of Orlando, particularly those in the African American community who have suggested a history of strained relations between the police department and blacks.
Today, questions about police conduct during the investigation surfaced. ABC News reported that that police led one witness’ testimony to support Zimmerman’s self-defense claims.
The police initially told Martin’s family that Zimmerman said he acted in self-defense and that his record was “squeaky-clean.” During a press conference on Monday, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee echoed that his investigators were unaware of Zimmerman’s prior arrests.
But Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 on charges of resisting arrest. The charges in that case were dropped, according to county clerk records.
Members of the homeowner’s association of The Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community, where the shooting occurred, told HuffPost that residents had made several complaints to police and the association about Zimmerman’s aggressive tactics.
Benjamin Crump, the Martin family’s attorney, said the self-defense claims don’t make sense in the context of this shooting. When police arrived at the scene the night of the shooting, Martin had a bag of candy and canned iced tea, said police. Also, Martin was 140 lbs., nearly 100 lbs. less than Zimmerman, said Crump.
Crump filed a public records lawsuit to get the 911 recordings for the night of the shooting. Crump said people who have heard the tapes said Zimmerman, who is white, made a comment about Martin’s race during the call and that he had no intention of letting the youth get away because, “they always get away.” Others outlets have reported the use of an expletive. Martin is black.
The shooting has highlighted long-simmering tensions between Sanford’s black community and the police.
“There has been tension between the black community and the police for a long time,” said Turner Clayton, the president of the local NAACP. “It’s hard to swallow,” he said. “The police department claimed that they didn’t have enough probable cause, and that all the evidence seems to point to self defense. Of course, we don’t believe that for a minute.”
Calls and emails to Lee were not immediately returned on Tuesday evening.
Just how long the next phase of the case will take is unclear. A spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office said she has seen murder, homicide and manslaughter cases take upward of a couple years to be resolved.
The office’s statement released today said the process is subject to many factors, and that “setting a specific completion date at this time would be mere speculation.” Ultimately, its decisions will be “based on the law and the evidence,” it said.
The evidence it will use to decide will be provided by the Sanford Police Department. Lee has repeatedly said that his officers have found no evidence to contradict Zimmerman’s claims of self-defense.
“In this case, Mr. Zimmerman has made the statement of self-defense,” Lee said during Monday’s press conference. “Until we can establish probable cause to dispute that, we don’t have the grounds to arrest him.”
Source: Huffington Post
March 22, 2012 at 4:44 pm
This is a terrible thing that has happen, and I hope that the man gets what he deserves not to be angry of the situation but it is just sad to see that this could cause a serious epidemic. I feel that it is time to come together understand as a people that if we don’t unite and understand that situations like this happen all time regardless of race that we are only going to be destroying ourselves. I understand justice needs to be serve and the man should at least go to trail or jail, but I just hope as a young black male our community won’t take this out of proportion. This is not the first time something like this has happened but for someone to kill someone and not get punished will cause devestation in the black community and think that we are on our own. What is stopping the next person from getting away with murder. Perhaps the people will not see justice but I know that God has. I can’t imagine what the family must be facing but now is the time to have faith, I just hope that this doesn’t get blown way out of the water.
March 25, 2012 at 7:42 am
Zimmerman claims he was attacked and was defending himself. Which person in this case was defending himself, a kid armed with a bag of candy or some hulking jerk armed with a pistol? It doesn’t take any functioning neurons to figure out that Trayvon was the one defending himself desperately against a stalker set on killing him.