By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Police officers who responded minutes after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin could not agree on whether George Zimmerman had a broken nose, but they all said the ex-neighborhood watch volunteer had cuts on his head, according to documents released Thursday.
The severity of Zimmerman’s injuries could be important in his claim of self-defense. Zimmerman, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in the February shooting.
Zimmerman was arrested 44 days after the shooting. The delay triggered protests nationwide and the departure of Sanford’s police chief.
Martin was black and his parents contend Zimmerman racially profiled him. Zimmerman’s family has denied that he is racist. Zimmerman’s father is white and his mother is Peruvian.
The documents released offer a description by police officers right after the fatal shooting in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., a suburb of Orlando. One of the first police officers at the scene used a plastic bag to try to stop the flow of blood from Martin’s chest wound.
Another officer described Zimmerman as grunting from pain when he was taken into an interview room at police headquarters.
A neighbor who heard shouts outside her townhome told an investigator that “the bigger” of the two men got up after she heard moans for help and then a gunshot. She told the investigator that the lead detective for Sanford police investigating the case had told her, in an attempt to comfort her during an interview, that the person who had been moaning for help was alive and that he was “really beaten up and scratched.”
Who cried for help is a point of contention. Martin’s family claim it is their son in background of 911 calls neighbors made, but Zimmerman’s father has said the shouts for help were his son.
Martin’s cousin, in an interview with the investigator, said “without a doubt ‘on a stack of Bibles’” that the cries were those of Martin.
Some of the officers who responded to the scene recognized Zimmerman from previous calls he had made to police about break-ins and the thefts in the gated community.
In a call just weeks before his confrontation with Martin, Zimmerman described a man going through trash cans in the neighborhood. When asked by a dispatcher, Zimmerman says he is black.
“He keeps going to this guy’s house. I know him. I know the resident. He’s Caucasian,” Zimmerman said. “He is going up to the house and then going along the side of it and then coming straight and then going back to it. I don’t know what he’s doing. I don’t want to approach him, personally.”
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Associated Press writers Jennifer Kay, Suzette Laboy and Terry Spencer contributed to this report.
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Follow Mike Schneider on twitter at: www.twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
Associated Press
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
What is important in this case is that we rush to judgment. Screw the legal process.
it’s fl, he’ll walk like casey did.
Any chance he walks because he was attacked? Or do we just rush to judgmnent?
Attacked? Really? SMH!!! When does the BS stop!!! That lil boy compared to that grown man? Do you honestly believe deadly force is really necessary? Or is that some hidden ulterior motive that your praising this man for??? I mean really! If this was a young white child shot and killed by a grown black man who could have easily defended himself with his hands, would you still have the same opinion of “self defense”? I Highly doubt it!!!
“that little boy” lol the picture they used was 5 years ago, he wasn’t so little there buddy, did you see the video from the store he was buying his ‘skittles’. Funny thing about this whole thing is as son as Uncle Al Sharpton screamed racism he was leading that whole lynch mob by the nose, just like they are doing for Obama’s reelection caimpaign. Use some common sense and let the man have his day in court!
i dont believe deadly force was necessary but he was not a lil boy he was an athletic 17 y/o young man who was bigger than george zimmerman and could probably beat his ***, this story is sad and could have easily been avoided.
little boy meaning hes A CHILD COMPARED 2 THAT GROWN *** MAN(not his size)..flip it whicheva way u want but he was wrong…
A fair trial is only right!!! And as far as the Little boy comment, I was referring to his age! Don’t make it seem as if this kid was some pro athlete!!! This George Zimmerman Character put himself in that situation!!! That boy was heading home from a store and approached by a man carrying a pistol!!! No matter how the cookie crumbles like I said earlier (and you all seemed to ignore), had it been a lil white boy who was shot and killed, down the road from his house, that whole law would be under question right now!!! But seeing it was a young black man they only figure “ONE DOWN”!!! Pure Ignorance!!! It doesn’t take a 4 year trial to determine that this George character was wrong!!! He had time to call 911, they told him clearly not to pursuit, and he did anyway resulting in the death of a human being!!! Anyone who pretends to themselves that this man wasn’t wrong is ignorant as hell!!!
Whats wrong is wrong!!! This is just a sad case all together!!! A life wasted!!!