Documents Tell Zimmerman’s Side in Martin Shooting
MIAMI – The legal team for George Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, has released Mr. Zimmerman's written statement and several audio and video interviews with investigators, in which Mr. Zimmerman says he was ambushed and then attacked so violently by Mr. Martin that this head “felt like it was going explode” and that the teenager had covered his nose and mouth before reaching for Mr. Zimmerman’s firearm.
The material represents the first time that the public has had the opportunity to hear Mr. Zimmerman’s initial statements to the police about the shooting of Mr. Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old African-American.
Mr. Martin’s death on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., and the decision by the local police not to immediately bring charges against Mr. Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, set off a national outcry about race and Florida's self-defense laws.
As part of the case's continuing fallout, Bill R. Lee Jr., Sanford's police chief, who had been criticized for his handling of the case, was relieved this week of his duties.
The information released on
www.gzlegalcase.com, a Web site established by Mr. Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, includes video of Mr. Zimmerman waiting to be interviewed the day after the shooting. He has at least two bandages on the back of his head.
Mr. O’Mara had sought to keep the statements, audio and video sealed from the public, but the judge in the case ordered them released because Mr. Zimmerman had not confessed to a crime.
In his written statement about the shooting, Mr. Zimmerman said he was driving to a grocery store when he first spotted Mr. Martin "walking in the rain looking into homes" inside a gated community in Sanford.
Mr. Zimmerman, 28, a crime watch volunteer, said that after he pulled over and called 911 that he lost sight of Mr. Martin in the darkness before the teenager suddenly reappeared and "circled my vehicle."
As he spoke to the 911 dispatcher, Mr. Zimmerman said that Mr. Martin had again vanished, so Mr. Zimmerman got out of his vehicle to look at a street sign so his location could be reported to the police.
He said the dispatcher told him not to follow Mr. Martin so he was returning to his vehicle when "the suspect emerged from the darkness and said 'You got a problem?'"
Mr. Zimmerman said he responded, “No,” but said that Mr. Martin told him, “You do now.”
In his interview with the police on the night of the shooting, Mr. Zimmerman said that Mr. Martin “jumped out from the bushes" and, using an expletive, asked what is your problem.
Mr. Zimmerman said that when he tried to use his cellphone to dial 911 again, that Mr. Martin punched him in the face, causing Mr. Zimmerman to fall "backwards onto my back."
“The suspect got on top of me,” Mr. Zimmerman wrote in the statement. “I yelled, ‘Help’ several times.”
Mr. Zimmerman wrote that Mr. Martin had cursed at him while telling him to be quiet before he grabbed Mr. Zimmerman’s head and slammed it into the sidewalk several times.
"My head felt like it was going to explode," Mr. Zimmerman wrote, adding that he continued to scream for help.
In an audio interview with the police, Mr. Zimmerman said Mr. Martin's punches felt like “bricks.”
“I couldn’t breathe and he still kept trying to hit my head against the pavement,” Mr. Zimmerman said.
Mr. Zimmerman said he had screamed out, "Help me, help me. He is killing me.”
Mr. Zimmerman said that as he tried to slide from underneath Mr. Martin that the teenager "covered my mouth and nose and stopped my breathing."
Next, Mr. Zimmerman wrote, "I felt the suspect reach for my now exposed firearm and say, 'Your gonna die tonight," while calling him an obscene name. "I unholstered my firearm in fear for my life as he had assured he was going to kill me and fired one shot into his torso."
Mr. Zimmerman then wrote that Mr. Martin sat up and said, "You got me."
Moments later, Mr. Zimmerman said a neighbor had arrived, and shortly after that, a Sanford Police Department officer.
As Mr. Zimmerman retells his version of events in the days after the shooting, the story remains essentially consistent, although some of the language varies.
In one of the videos, Mr. Zimmerman is seen re-enacting the episode for the police. He also gives investigators a tour of the neighborhood, telling them where he first saw Mr. Martin and where his vehicle had been parked.
Mr. Zimmerman, who is in jail in Florida, had been released on a bond of $150,000 after a hearing on April 20.
But the judge in his case, Kenneth R. Lester Jr., revoked the bond for Mr. Zimmerman on June 1 and returned him to jail after prosecutors accused Mr. Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie Zimmerman, 25, of lying about their assets in court.
At the time, Mr. Zimmerman had access to as much as $135,000 from a PayPal account that collected donations through a legal defense Web site. But Shellie Zimmerman testified that she was unaware of how much money had been collected through the site. Because it was believed that Mr. Zimmerman had no money, he had been released on a relatively low bond for a murder charge.
Shellie Zimmerman was charged with perjury this month, accused of lying at a hearing when she told a judge that the couple had limited money. She was later released on $1,000 bond.
Lizette Alvarez reported from Miami, and Timothy Williams from New York.
