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

**SportsFromA2** · 03-20-2012, 08:47 AM

I don't get it.. Glad the Feds are getting involved, that's ridiculous.

In the final moments of his life, Trayvon Martin was being hounded by a strange man on a cellphone who ran after him, cornered him and confronted him, according to the teenage girl whose call logs show she was on the phone with the 17-year-old boy in the moments before neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot him dead.

Martin's death Feb. 26 has stirred national outrage and protests, partly prompting the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the FBI to open an investigation into the case.

ABC News was there exclusively as the 16-year-old girl told Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump about the last moments of the teenager's life.

"He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man," Martin's friend said. "I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run."

Eventually he would run, said the girl, thinking that he'd managed to escape. But suddenly the strange man was back, cornering Martin.

"Trayvon said, 'What, are you following me for,' and the man said, 'What are you doing here.' Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn't answer the phone."

The line went dead. Besides screams heard on 911 calls that night as Martin and Zimmerman scuffled, those were the last words he said.

Trayvon's phone logs, also obtained exclusively by ABC News, show the conversation occurred five minutes before police first arrived on scene. The young woman's parents asked that her name not be used, and that only an attorney could ask her questions.

Martin's father, Tracey Martin, and mother, Sybrina Fulton, listened to the call along with ABC News, ashen-faced.

"He knew he was being followed and tried to get away from the guy, and the guy still caught up with him," Tracey Martin said. "And that's the most disturbing part. He thought he had got away from the guy and the guy back-tracked for him."

The teen was killed by Zimmerman while walking back to his father's fiancés home after stepping out to buy Skittles and some iced tea during the NBA All-Star Game. After weeks of relentless pressure, the Sanford Police have decided to release emergency and non-emergency calls placed during the incident.

"These a**holes always get away," Zimmerman says in a call to a non-emergency number.

Dispatcher: "Are you following him?"

Zimmerman: "Yeah."

Dispatcher: "We don't need you to do that."

An altercation soon ensued. A few moments later a torrent of 911 calls flooded in and Martin was killed by a single bullet. Zimmerman claimed self-defense and has yet to be arrested, stoking outrage and claims of prejudice against the police department.

"When George Zimmerman is arrested, tried and convicted I will get a little rest," Tracey Martin said.

According to a statement by the Justice Department, "The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action and the conclusion of the investigation. … The government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person acted intentionally and with the specific intent to do something which the law forbids. Negligence, recklessness, mistakes and accidents are not prosecutable under the federal criminal civil rights laws."

Nearly half a million people have signed an online petition on change.org urging law enforcement officials to step in and arrest Zimmerman. Protests have played out in the Florida town all week with a large gathering expected Thursday.

Zimmerman violated major principles of the Neighborhood Watch manual, ABC News has learned. The manual from the Neighborhood Watch program states: "It should be emphasized to members that they do not possess police powers. And they shall not carry weapons or pursue vehicles."

According to Chris Tutko, the director of the National Neighborhood Watch program, there are about 22,000 registered watch groups nationwide, and Zimmerman was not part of a registered group, which police were not aware of at the time of the incident.

http://gma.yahoo.com/trayvon-martin-...-abc-news.html

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/tray...calls-15957343

here are the full 911 recordings, i guess there's NSFW audio (language)-
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/GRA...z/-/index.html

he's unarmed, the guy chases him, and then you can hear the kid screaming for help... how is this self-defense?

**det2orl** · 03-20-2012, 09:02 AM

This **** is disgusting.

And to answer your question how this is self-defense, because the kid was black. Sanford is kinda ****ed up. There are lot of little pockets of the old south BS here.

**The Great Gazoo** · 03-20-2012, 09:05 AM

because Zimmerman is a douche...

**motorcityjoe611** · 03-20-2012, 09:09 AM

This guy had run-ins with the calling 911 before. He was looking to be a cowboy and that poor kid paid the price.
I hope he does life.

**det2orl** · 03-20-2012, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by The Great Gazoo

because Zimmerman is a psycho.

fixed

**yourmom_is_hot** · 03-20-2012, 09:26 AM

seems like something a certain poster here would do.

**GF-22a** · 03-20-2012, 09:33 AM

There has to be more to the story, right? Do you really follow, chase down and then shot a kid just because? And he called the police while he was doing it?

**BubblesTheLion** · 03-20-2012, 09:35 AM

cell phone could have been a gun, better chase him down, corner him, and shoot first, in self defense...

**GF-22a** · 03-20-2012, 09:37 AM

EVen if you saw the kid breaking into a house would you really do all that? I didn't listen to the 911 and really don't plan to... But did the the killer say why he was following him?

**det2orl** · 03-20-2012, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by GF-22a

EVen if you saw the kid breaking into a house would you really do all that? I didn't listen to the 911 and really don't plan to... But did the the killer say why he was following him?

Yes, even when the 911 operator told him not to.

**SportsFromA2** · 03-20-2012, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by GF-22a

EVen if you saw the kid breaking into a house would you really do all that? I didn't listen to the 911 and really don't plan to... But did the the killer say why he was following him?

the guy told 911 because the kid was just hanging out in the rain or something and 'looks like he's up to something'...