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March 29th, 2012
10:42 PM ET

How shooting witness impacts Martin case

The legal panel, including a lawyer for Trayvon Martin's family, analyzes an account of the shooting from a new witness.
Filed under: Trayvon Martin
soundoff (13 Responses)
  1. Hank Stewart

    You keep reporting that Zimmerman was a Neighborhood Watch Captain. Captain of what? Were there other residents involved in the Neighborhood Watch? Did they patrol the neighborhood? Did patrol while armed? What was the crime rate in the neighborhood? Who were the perpatrators? Was Zimmerman returning to his car as he was directed to do?
    Was he laying on the ground when he fired? What was the angle of entry of the bulllet. Were there powder burns on Martins clothing? Have you ever been in a similar situation? What were your feelings. I'm 65 and have been beatem by a 17 year old high school player. He was bigger, heavier and stronger than I will ever be. It's a very frightening experience. Why don't you answer ALL the questions rather than just focus on Zimmerman.

    March 30, 2012 at 7:19 pm |
    • ernest

      Why hasn't anyone ask when zimmermans weapon was charge. Did he charge the weapon before ever getting out of his car in which case ment that he aleast had the thought of pulling his and using weapon on the kid before he ever left his vic, or does he have the forsite to charge his weapon as he saids after the kid walk up and starts to beat he? I would think that if he did not have a bullet loaded and ready to go before he started to get beatin as he saids he would have pulled to gun and fired nothing. Meaing he was lock and loaded before ever having to deal with the kid face to face. I came up with this theory b/c fl and ga weapon laws are very much the same and its not legal for us to walk around with a chamber rd ever. sorry about the spelling I'm the worst. I talk with a few lawyers here in atl that think that would be a good thing to look at. Also i think that zimmerman may not have followed him on a race issue at all, but I would lean more to the fact that everytime zimmerman seen A TEEN in his neighborhood after dark that teen or young adult is up to no good. that why the 1st person to come out and stand up for him is an older blk man with teen age blk sons. If ever does go to court he'll have a better chance of walking b/c everybody wanted to make it a race issue. I am blk young adult fater ex-army.

      April 2, 2012 at 1:58 pm |
  2. Ms. Blain

    Is this the type of message the Justice System want to put out there? (“I have the right to walk around with a loaded gun and confront who I please with my gun. If that person says anything to me threatening or try to fight me because I confronted them with my gun, I have the right to KILL them”.) Connections, Connections, Connections. (“I can do what I want. My daddy is a Judge; he has connections with the Sanford Police Chief, Sanford Police Officers, the DA, etc.”) I guess some people are above the law. Are you serious America? Is this the type of country we have become? We the people demand justice ASAP, we want this murderer arrested Right now, and we want the charges brought up against the Sanford Police Dept., the DA, and everyone else who has played a part to cover up this Murder. This is the United States of America, the land of the free and home of the brave. This young man has the freedom to walk down the street, to be black, to wear the clothes he chooses, to be on the phone, and to confront the person who is following him like a maniac. He didn’t deserve to be shot in the chest by this psychopath. The FBI needs to stand up and show some back bone, look this criminal up. The Internal Affairs need to file charges against all the Police Officers who stood in the way of justice and broke the Law. And as for the father of the murderer, you should be ashamed of yourself; you are a (so-called) man who represents the law. Do you have any morals, where’s your conviction? Zimmerman, what if a person shot your child down like a dog because of their race? And get away with it? This young man stood his ground against this murderer and was shot for it. That’s not right. Well, America it’s about that time. It’s time to stand up and fight for your lives. Stand your ground. Don’t be the next victim of a racist, Godless, daddy’s boy with connections, psychopath. It’s time to arm ourselves against injustice.

    March 30, 2012 at 11:53 am |
  3. MB

    CNN and all of the reporters are missing the point regarding the physical confrontation. Its all irrelevant!!!!!!!

    George Zimmerman stalked the teenager based on profiling – after he was told not to. The teenager was minding his own business – of which his rights were violated. The teenager has the right to defend himself against a stranger who is stalkiing hiim.

    You can not claim self-defense when you are the one that picked the fight.

    Based on the phone calls alone, George Zimmerman should have been arrested and tried for murder or manslaugter. All talk about confrontation and who did what to who IS IRRELEVANT!!!! It is a documneted fact that George Zimmerman started the incident by exceeding his authority per police guidelines. He needs to pay for his judgement.

    March 30, 2012 at 11:13 am |
  4. vince

    good morning Anderson, i only have one question and i do think it makes a lot of scenes, whear were all these eye witnesses the night of the shooting while the police were on the scene ? i honestly believe there being hired to say this crap!

    March 30, 2012 at 9:31 am |
  5. rob

    Wow! that was a hard hitting interview with a really helpful witness. What did we learn from this witness? Two guys were struggling, then there were MULTIPLE gunshots. Yeah, it's all pretty clear to me now what happened that night. Great work Coop.

    March 30, 2012 at 9:12 am |
  6. J. Kelly

    I hope that Anderson will reconcile this new witnesses statement with those of the two women he interviewed over a week ago. They were residents in the community, apparently roommates (one white with short blond hair and the other a light-skinned Latina, sorry I don't recall the names), They said they heard cries for help and then the shot(s), at which time the cries for help stopped. They looked out their back door, I believe, or window, and they saw George Zimmerman on top of Trayvon. They said he had a foot planted on each side and his knees were on Trayvon's back, as were his hands. Their initial thought was he might be someone coming to aid Trayvon and that perhaps he had his hands on him covering the wound. They asked what was going on, or if everything was okay, and Zimmerman looked back at them several times over his shoulder and finally said to call 911, which they did. They said when he stood up, he did not look injured but that he looked stunned.

    March 30, 2012 at 8:07 am |
  7. Anthony

    Hi Anderson,

    I'm a former police chief. First, I would like to say that my heart goes out to the Martin family. This is a horrible tragedy and it saddens me that the Sanford Police Department and whoever the state attorney general person is to not provide justice for everyone they encounter. This case is not complicated at all. We have a possible vigilante or let's say an adrenaline person waiting on their debut in being a cop that made a bad decision that night. The first mistake Zimmerman made was that he followed Trayvon and he knows that he's not a cop. It appears that the laws in the State of Florida gives a person the right to provoke a person to flee from them and when they catch up with them, the pursuer has the right to 'Stand their Ground'. That's not a good message to send to gangs, rapist, etc. Without even looking further into the case, Zimmerman initiated something that would hunt him the rest of his life. If Trayvon was a threat as Zimmerman's family says, the threat is fleeing from you. On the other hand, Zimmerman is in PLAIN CLOTHES. Trayvon had a right to stand his ground, not knowing that Zimmerman might be a serial killer, rapist, etc. As I stated earlier, the State of Florida Attorney General person is not fair in their doing if they told the detective not to charge Zimmerman. A police officer doesn't have the right to profile a person, chase them out of suspicion and when they catch up with him, 'Stand their Ground'. George Zimmerman is a citizen in the State of Florida just like Trayvon which had the right to walk the street with a bag of skittles and an Arizona drink. Having a permit to bear arms or carry a gun doesn’t give Zimmerman ‘arrest powers‘ law officials of Florida. George Zimmerman, face what you have done and show your deepest sympathy to the family, because without a doubt, Trayvon Martin is the victim.

    Former Police Chief
    Anthony

    March 30, 2012 at 5:01 am |
  8. Melinda

    Here is a question you might want ask....If Trayvonn was on top of Zimmerman when he was shot, why is there no blood on the front of Zimmermans shirt? Trayvonn would have had to fall forward since he was found on his stomach and Zimmerman would have had to slid out from underneath him....or Trayvonn fell back, in which case Zimmerman had to move the body and rolled him over to his stomach......

    March 30, 2012 at 3:31 am |
  9. Lindsey

    Why isn't there any confirmation as to whether George Zimmerman was treated on the scene for a head wound, or broken nose?!

    March 30, 2012 at 1:27 am |
  10. norm

    One question, If any one is under someone and being beat badly and then shots the one on top, would that person be covered with blood before he could get up

    March 30, 2012 at 1:16 am |
  11. Wally fon

    After a lot of thought, this is my take on the situation, Zimmerman's Dad has some kind of influence in this situation over authorities! Travvon had to be a don Joe for 3days because his ID did not show that address, this gave time for authorities to coil the story the way we have it now! Even African police officers with no means will show a better sense of common sense in this case than the Police claim to have done!

    March 29, 2012 at 11:50 pm |
  12. sam

    Witness didn't seem to see much of value.

    March 29, 2012 at 10:49 pm |
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