Witness: Martin attacked Zimmerman

Updated: Friday, 23 Mar 2012, 6:19 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 23 Mar 2012, 5:47 PM EDT

ORLANDO - A witness we haven't heard from before paints a much different picture than we've seen so far of what happened the night 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed.

The night of that shooting, police say there was a witness who saw it all.

Our sister station, FOX 35 in Orlando, has spoken to that witness.

What Sanford Police investigators have in the folder, they put together on the killing of Trayvon Martin few know about.

The file now sits in the hands of the state attorney. Now that file is just weeks away from being opened to a grand jury.

It shows more now about why police believed that night that George Zimmerman shouldn't have gone to jail.

Zimmerman called 911 and told dispatchers he was following a teen. The dispatcher told Zimmerman not to.

And from that moment to the shooting, details are few.

But one man's testimony could be key for the police.

"The guy on the bottom who had a red sweater on was yelling to me: 'help, help…and I told him to stop and I was calling 911," he said.

Trayvon Martin was in a hoodie; Zimmerman was in red.

The witness only wanted to be identified as "John," and didn't not want to be shown on camera.

His statements to police were instrumental, because police backed up Zimmerman's claims, saying those screams on the 911 call are those of Zimmerman.

"When I got upstairs and looked down, the guy who was on top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point," John said.

Zimmerman says the shooting was self defense. According to information released on the Sanford city website, Zimmerman said he was going back to his SUV when he was attacked by the teen.

Sanford police say Zimmerman was bloody in his face and head, and the back of his shirt was wet and had grass stains, indicating a struggle took place before the shooting.
 

Trayvon Martin case: New Black Panthers offer $10,000 bounty for capture of George Zimmerman

Without a government-issued warrant, the organization opens itself up to civil or criminal liability, a lawyer said.

• Comments Also being reported...Spike Lee gave out Zimmermans address on Twitter...great...

  343

• 1
• 2
• next
• |   single page

Mikhail Muhammad, center, leads a protest by the New Black Panther Party on Saturday, March 24, 2012, in front of the Retreat at Twin Lakes community in Sanford, Florida, where Trayvon Martin was shot and killed last month. (Gary W. Green, Orlando Sentinel / March 24, 2012)

•  

  By Arelis R. Hernandez, Orlando Sentinel

  5:28 p.m. CDT, March 24, 2012

SANFORD — Members of the New Black Panther Party are offering a $10,000 reward for the "capture" of George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin.

New Black Panther leader Mikhail Muhammad announced the reward during a protest in Sanford Saturday. And when asked whether he was inciting violence, Muhammad replied defiantly: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

The bounty announcement came moments after members of the group called for the mobilization of 10,000 black men to capture Zimmerman, who shot Trayvon in a gated Sanford community on Feb. 26.

Muhammad said members of his group would search for Zimmerman themselves in Maitland — where the 28-year old worked before the shooting, employees there told the Orlando Sentinel. He declined to say when the group would begin their search.

Muhammad said the group's national chairman, Dr. Malik Zulu Shabaz of Washington, D.C. is receiving donations from black entertainers and athletes. They hope to collect $1 million by next week, Muhammad said.

The party said they would not release the names of donors nor would they provide documentation to support the existence of donations.

The New Black Panthers announced the reward at a protest in Sanford Saturday, the activist group's third protest in the past two weeks over the fatal shooting of the Miami Gardens teen.

The group called for Zimmerman's arrest and threatened to find and detain him if police were not willing to do so. But group members didn't call for the mobilization of thousands until Saturday.

Muhammed led the group in chanting "Justice for Trayvon!" and "Black Power!"

"If the government won't do the job, we'll do it," Muhammad said, leading his group of eight party members in chants like "freedom or death" and "justice for Trayvon" while making the iconic gesture of raising their fists into the air.

City officials issued a statement, they said was approved by Sanford Police Captain Robert O'Connor, condemning the group's appeal and asking citizens to leave all arrests to them.

"The City is requesting calm heads and no vigilante justice," the statement said. "Attempts by civilians to take any person into custody may result in criminal charges or unnecessary violence."

The party members said they are tired of the inaction of government officials — from Sanford city officials up to the Governor, accusing them of lying and delaying justice.

They accused newly-appointed special prosecutor Angela Corley of being an enemy of the black community.

"She has a track record of sending innocent young black men and women to prison," he said.

Sanford police arrived toward the end of the demonstration Saturday asking onlookers and media to avoid walking into the street in front of The Retreat at Twin Lakes where Trayvon was killed.

As the officer walked back to his cruiser, Muhammad berated and pointed angrily at him saying "If you'd had shown this much concern, Trayvon may still be alive today."

The fiery rhetoric and often profanity-laden diatribes made some visitors to the impromptu memorial uncomfortable.

Pastor Moses Brown of Tampa said he was disappointed with the Panthers' approach.

"We believe in a message of justice, not hate," said Brown, who was in town to pray at the memorial and attend the Monday event at Sanford's Civic Center. "We believe justice will come through the court system."

What Obama’s Son Would Really Look Like

Barack Hussein Obama has been stoking racial discord by proclaiming that if he had a son, he would look just like Trayvon Martin. But why think in such superficial terms? At a more meaningful level, Obama’s son would look like this:

The Face of Obama's Son

I was in the green room on the 12th floor of Fox News building in New York on Friday when I heard the soundbite the first time, "If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon..."

That simple statement had been preceded by nearly two minutes of stating deep and profound "outrage" and "seriousness" in the need to "insure" that "this matter would be investigated to the fullest."

I asked commentator Cal Thomas who was sitting on one of the sofas in the room, "How many child murders have taken place since he took office?"

Calshrugged his shoulders as if to say, "I have no idea."

"And how many press ops did the president use to comment on a single one of them before now?" I continued.

"Ah yes, but it is an election year," replied Thomas.

Admittedly the Trayvon Martin case had not soaked up a ton of my conscious awareness prior to this week's "1,000,000" er "1,000 hoodie march." But the danger this case poses--I fear--is that it makes a mockery of a good law (Stand Your Ground), serves to foist a false fear on the American people (that suddenly armed citizens will be blowing away innocent teenagers), and is an utterly disgusting display of political hypocrisy. President Obama, Rev. Al Sharpton, and whatever pool of otherwise non-productive citizens can be rallied to chant, scream, and even get a police chief to resign, but none of that makes their cause just, much less necessary.

From the beginning of the Trayvon Martin case it appears as though there is an outrage over the police response to the teen's killing. A police department--it should be pointed out--that employs numbers of African Americans in their ranks.

There is no argument here for police brutality, so Sharpton and the race hustlers must gin up outrage based on timelines, and hearsay based on evidence that may or may not be reflected in the official findings once the full story is known. That's why it's being investigated...

President Obama was right, Trayvon's death is a tragedy. All his bluster Friday in the Rose Garden, ending with the campaign pander of the century--that Trayvon would look just like "my son"--was more or less a side show. All he said, was all the police in Florida, and reasonable pundits in the press have said, "We need to investigate what happened here."

I've lost a child to death, and let me be the first to say that no one can empathize exactly with the family of Trayvon because it's hard to know how to walk a mile in their shoes. We can wish them all the best, but none of it matters when you no longer have your son's smile greeting you as he saunters through the door.

But one thing that is distinctly unhelpful to the Martin family is to claim the investigation, the findings, the evidence, or the process is rigged, prior to the answers being released from the multiple investigations that are still currently in process.

But another thought also strikes me...

Trayvon was shot on February 26. But the son of Melissa Coon was set on fire by two assailants in their late teens on his way home on March 4. The woman's son was only two blocks from his home when two assailants ran him down, doused him in gasoline, and lit him on fire.

The two assailants are thought to be classmates of the boy in the local high school.

The boy's future may hold an outlook that is rather dismal, and filled with pain. It appears he may in fact yet survive and pull through, but to what quality of life?

Everyone is questioning the motive of the shooter in the Trayvon Martin case, he had opportunity, he had access, and he was a lawful owner of a concealed carry weapon. 

He also did clearly disobey the police dispatch directly, and probably on that charge alone should be in jail. But if that is the case, the investigation will show that to be the case. The shooter also may have purely shot the boy because he merely hated the color of his skin, and if so--I believe he would be eligible for the death penalty. (A sentence Rev. Al Sharpton regularly campaigns against.) 

And though that is a possible theory, there is no evidence of bias or malice towards race uncovered yet.

Eight days later, in the case of the child who was burned, the victim was white, the assailants black, the media silent, and the President indifferent.

But the assailants repeatedly told the victim, "You deserve to die. You get what you deserve white boy." 

Even though the victim had made it to the porch of his own home, the black youths rushed him, and burned his face in a huge fireball from the gasoline, fumes, and a pocket lighter. Will the lighter control activist groups take up this hate crime in earnest?

Unlike President Obama I actually am the father of both an African-American and a Caucasian son, if either of these crimes had been perpetrated against either of them, my outrage would've been the same--even equal.

But President Obama's selective outrage seems to follow the television cameras--and in this instance--the trail of rent-a-mobs that accompany Rev. Sharpton.

And as my new friend Cal said, "Ah yes, but it is an election year!"

From what I've read, he was staying at his father's girlfriend's house....they were watching the NBA All-Star game over there.  I am wondering the same thing...what was he suspended from school for, and why does the media continue to show photos of him when he was younger.  Not the 6'0" 160 pound teenager boy...football player.  Obama should have kept his mouth out of this, except in general terms.  Unless he is ready to express condolences to every parent that loses a child each day.  Pathetic!

Another instance where the victim becomes the bad guy? So what if he was suspended from school, you don't deserve to die for it, so what if he was 17 and a semi man, he is still a minor child. I actually don't care if he was 40. This is suddenly reminding me of women who are raped.

Spike Lee Retweets George Zimmerman’s Home Address… Twice