The parents of a 17-year-old Krop High student killed last month in Sanford by a neighborhood watch representative gathered Sunday night at a Miami Gardens church to demand justice in their son's shooting.
"Not only did I lose a son, I lost a dear friend," Tracy Martin, father of Trayvon Martin, said outside the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church at the Sunday night gathering.
"I'm hoping that one day, one day, he's gonna walk through the door and this is gonna be a nightmare," mother Sabrina Fulton said.
Family and friends said a prayer and read a poem for the teen, who was visiting his father and step mom in the central Florida town in February when he was gunned down by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch representative for The Retreat at Twin Lakes.
Zimmerman had called police and reported Martin as a suspicious person in the neighborhood, before following Martin from his car, police said.
When officers arrived, Martin, who had gone to a nearby store for a bag of Skittles and an iced tea, was dead.
"I think it's just profiling, I think it has something to do with the fact that he was a young black African-American kid," Fulton said. "I don't know why he became suspicious."
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.
At Sunday's gathering, the Martin family and their attorney, Benjamin Crump, disputed the self defense claim.
"George Michael Zimmerman had a 9 millimeter gun, Trayvon Martin had a bag of Skittles, how can he claim self defense?" Crump said.
A records search revealed an arrest record for Zimmerman, including an arrest in 2005 for resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer.
"The police lied to this family, and told them he was squeaky clean and that was one of the reasons why they weren't arresting George Michael Zimmerman," Crump said.
Zimmerman hasn't been charged in the shooting.
"We need answers and we need justice," Tracy Martin said. "Not only are we looking for an arrest, we're looking for a conviction."
