Father Wants Man Who Shot His Son Arrested

Trayvon Martin was fatally shot on Feb. 26.

The mother of a Miami boy who was fatally shot in central Florida said Friday she cannot understand why the shooter, the captain of a neighborhood crime watch group, has not been arrested.

"As a mother, my heart is broken," Sabrina Fulton said.

Her son Trayvon Martin, 17, a junior at Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School in Miami, was in Sanford visiting his father and his father’s fiancée when George Zimmerman allegedly shot him on Feb. 26, The Miami Herald reported Friday.

“Why isn’t this guy in jail? He said my son was a threat," the boy's father Tracy Martin was quoted as saying. "How was he a threat? I don’t know what he could’ve done to generate that reaction; a 140-pound kid.”

Martin said at a press conference Friday that "my son left Sanford, Florida in a body bag, while George Zimmerman went home to sleep in his own bed."

Zimmerman, 26, is the captain of a crime watch group at The Retreat at Twin Lakes, the gated community where Martin lives.

Authorities said Zimmerman made a call to police using a non-emergency line and reported a suspicious person in the area. He followed Martin from his car, according to police.

Several callers told police that they saw a fight and heard a gunshot. Zimmerman, with the gun, was bleeding from his nose and head when authorities arrived, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Martin had a bag of Skittles and iced tea with him.

Police said Zimmerman told them that he shot Martin in self-defense. Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. said that evidence and testimony may corroborate Zimmerman's story, because he had a bloody nose and had grass clippings on the back of his shirt, like he had been in a defensive posture.

Martin's parents and their lawyers are calling on police to arrest Zimmerman and release details.

Lee said Friday that the dispatcher asked Zimmerman, after he called, "to wait until we got there."

"He just disregards their instructions, and he goes like a loose cannon with a gun and shoots this kid in cold blood," responded lawyer Benjamin Crump.

He said of Trayvon Martin: “As far as we know, all he was doing was walking back from the 7-Eleven.”

Martin was out of school because he was suspended for a week, and his father told the Herald that he brought him to Sanford “to disconnect and get his priorities straight.”

Police said the investigation should be completed by next week.

On Friday Martin's family filed a lawsuit asking the police department to release the 911 tapes.

Michael French, a classmate of Martin's at Krop Senior High, said "he was smart and funny and he always kept to himself, too, so I know he wouldn’t start anything."

French said said the incident happened because Martin was black, “and it was a predominantly white neighborhood, so he looked suspicious. So that’s probably why.”

Contact Us