On Friday two women who live near where Miami high school student Trayvon Martin was shot in a gated community in Sanford, Florida came forward to deny that neighborhood crime watch captain George Zimmerman acted in self-defense, saying they heard the teen calling for help.
Zimmerman, 28, has told police that he fatally shot Martin, 17, as he defended himself after an altercation on the night of Feb. 26.
Not so, Mary Kutcher and her roommate said Friday.
“I feel it was not self-defense, because I heard the crying, and if it was Zimmerman that was crying, Zimmerman would have continued crying after the shot went off,” Kutcher said at a press conference.
The women say they told Sanford Police exactly what they saw and heard, and both deny Zimmerman was in any danger.
Martin, who was a junior at Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School in Miami, had a bag of Skittles and iced tea with him when he encountered Zimmerman as he walked home from a 7-Eleven, his family said. He was visiting his father and his father’s fiancée at The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford.
“We believe this is murder because we’ve had statements from two eyewitnesses who said that it was Trayvon Martin who pleaded, who made cries, for his life,” said family attorney Natalie Jackson. “We believe as a gun was pointed at a 17-year-old child, he pleaded for his life and George Zimmerman pulled the trigger.”
Zimmerman has not been charged.
Jackson and others have said that Martin was targeted by Zimmerman because he was black, but a letter Zimmerman’s father delivered to the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday said that he is Hispanic and grew up in a multiracial family, so “he would be the last to discriminate.”
Robert Zimmerman told the newspaper his son has received death threats and has moved out of his home.
Meantime, Martin’s family was set to listen to recordings of 911 calls at Sanford City Hall Friday, after they sued to have the recordings released. Martin’s parents called on the FBI to take over the investigation from Sanford Police earlier in the day.
