Neighborhood Watch guy chases down a kid, shoots him, charged with 2nd-degree murder

[RickFromFowler]

But that is kind of the problem. The police report consists of GZ's retelling of the happenings. The PD accepted that as fact and moved on.

Um.. no. The police report says this account was provided by an individual who was an eye witness to the event and saw the entire event and whom called 911. That is not GZ account, but another person's.

That person has only been identified as "John", I do not know if there are other eye witnesses or if there has been other evidence presented, that is part of the information which is still unknown.

This account could end up being false.. or it might end up being accurate.

[det2orl]

Um.. no. The police report says this account was provided by an individual who was an eye witness to the event and saw the entire event and whom called 911. That is not GZ account, but another person's.

That person has only been identified as "John", I do not know if there are other eye witnesses or if there has been other evidence presented, that is part of the information which is still unknown.

This account could end up being false.. or it might end up being accurate.

I thought John only said that he saw TM on top of GZ not that he saw it all from beginning to end.

[micmac1369]

Attempt to apprehend?

Well. This case has a variety of wrinkles to it then. First we have a potentially over aggressive neighborhood watch guy. It is not illegal to follow someone and call the cops. People do it all the time. I think people are forgetting that homes are regularly burglarized, invaded and robbed. Who does it? Usually people who neighbors do not recognize. There have been cases in my area where tips like this have led to capture of chain burglars. In one instance, the guy had robbed over 100 homes! Guess what? A hoodie is often used. Why? Because it is harder to recognize someone in one. You add a ballcap and shades and you have a kit that is about camera proof.

Unfortunately it is not a perfect world and some guys, possibly like Zimmerman, can be reckless. When the police said he shouldn't follow, that is not an order. If someone kicked in your door stole something and ran out and you were chasing him on foot and an officer asked you not to chase, some people still would. Heck I might as well. The difference here is that someone was not actively engaging in a crime, just "looking" suspicious, as a probable trespasser. So he follows him and Trayvon confronts him. A reasonable course of action on his part as well.

So what you have is probably two people who acted appropriately until some flash point, both suspicious of the other. Evidence is suggesting that now perhaps there was some sort of fight leading up to Trayvon's death. The question for me is who swung first. I could care less about who followed who.
Someone said if Zimmerman hadn't ignored the operator this wouldn't have happened. Well. If Trayvon had not trespassed into a gated community it woudn't have come to this either.

So whomever swung first is to me the more culpable. It is a tragedy all around and unfortunately we will probably never know.

[det2orl]

Well. This case has a variety of wrinkles to it then. First we have a potentially over aggressive neighborhood watch guy. It is not illegal to follow someone and call the cops. People do it all the time. I think people are forgetting that homes are regularly burglarized, invaded and robbed. Who does it? Usually people who neighbors do not recognize. There have been cases in my area where tips like this have led to capture of chain burglars. In one instance, the guy had robbed over 100 homes! Guess what? A hoodie is often used. Why? Because it is harder to recognize someone in one. You add a ballcap and shades and you have a kit that is about camera proof.

Unfortunately it is not a perfect world and some guys, possibly like Zimmerman, can be reckless. When the police said he shouldn't follow, that is not an order. If someone kicked in your door stole something and ran out and you were chasing him on foot and an officer asked you not to chase, some people still would. Heck I might as well. The difference here is that someone was not actively engaging in a crime, just "looking" suspicious, as a probable trespasser. So he follows him and Trayvon confronts him. A reasonable course of action on his part as well.

So what you have is probably two people who acted appropriately until some flash point, both suspicious of the other. Evidence is suggesting that now perhaps there was some sort of fight leading up to Trayvon's death. The question for me is who swung first. I could care less about who followed who.
Someone said if Zimmerman hadn't ignored the operator this wouldn't have happened. Well. If Trayvon had not trespassed into a gated community it woudn't have come to this either.

So whomever swung first is to me the more culpable. It is a tragedy all around and unfortunately we will probably never know.

Only thing is he wasn't trespassing. He was there visiting his father and his fiancee

[micmac1369]

Only thing is he wasn't trespassing. He was there visiting his father and his fiancee

I read somewhere he was. Another thing pissing me off about this story is that articles and accounts are differing too wildly. Either way, Zimmerman should not have shot him. I always thought self defense limited you to one step above the weapon being used to attack you, but with this goofy new law....

[MoOff24]

Does everyone remember the Duke rape case? Don't know why everyone always feel the need to jump to conclusions with limited and contradictory information.

[micmac1369]

Does everyone remember the Duke rape case? Don't know why everyone always feel the need to jump to conclusions with limited and contradictory information.

Completely agree. There is alot we do not know.

[EvenflowTen]

Does everyone remember the Duke rape case? Don't know why everyone always feel the need to jump to conclusions with limited and contradictory information.

You would have thought that after that case and the shooting in Tuscon with Rep. Giffords, that the media would balk at rushing to broadcast information before the whole story is in.

Do you think that now that more and more information is trickling out that those that have been calling for Zimmerman's head will back down once all the information is out? I don't think that it will likely happen. Do you think that anyone will publicly apologize to him if in the end he did truly act in self defense?

[RickFromFowler]

You would have thought that after that case and the shooting in Tuscon with Rep. Giffords, that the media would balk at rushing to broadcast information before the whole story is in.

Do you think that now that more and more information is trickling out that those that have been calling for Zimmerman's head will back down once all the information is out? I don't think that it will likely happen. Do you think that anyone will publicly apologize to him if in the end he did truly act in self defense?

They'll probably blame George Bush for giving them bad information and for creating an environment which fed the feeding frenzy..

[SportsFromA2]

and don't forget, Zimmerman wasn't 'on duty' :

He said he was on his way to the grocery store when he spotted Trayvon walking through his gated community.

[joeking1978]

I just came across this and thought it was interesting... Take it fwiw... it doesn't represent my opinion.