Photo Credit: werthmedia Creative Commons
A slain Florida teenager and the neighborhood watch captain who shot and killed him exchanged words before the teen punched him in the nose and began banging the man’s head on the ground, according to the watch captain’s account of the confrontation that led to the shooting.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that George Zimmerman told police he lost 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in the neighborhood he regularly patrolled and was walking back to his vehicle last month when the youth approached him from behind.
The two exchanged words, Zimmerman said, and Martin then punched him, jumped on top of him and began banging his head on a sidewalk. Zimmerman said he began crying for help; Martin’s family thinks it was their son who was crying out. Witness accounts differ and 911 tapes in which the voices are heard are not clear.
A statement from Sanford police said the newspaper story was “consistent” with evidence turned over to prosecutors.
Because Martin was black and Zimmerman has a white father and Hispanic mother, the case has become a racial flashpoint that has civil rights leaders and others leading a series of protests in Sanford and around the country. Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self-defense and has not been arrested.
Read More at OfficialWire. By Curt Anderson and Mike Schneider, AP
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This is a case where survellance videos are a good thing. Both sides says theirs is the truth, but videos show what really happened. Those who do not want video cameras in public places have a reason to have that stance, in my opinion. What they do in the privacy of their homes is one thing, but public property should be the property of the public, and no criminal element should have the escape of telling only their side of the story.
Notice, I do not take sides here, only point out that a totally disinterested camera could have been the best witness.