Video of Trayvon killer ‘icing on the cake,’ says mother
Calls for shooter’s arrest mount after cop footage refutes claim of struggle
WASHINGTON— A new police surveillance video showing the killer of teenager Trayvon Martin with no obvious facial injuries, despite his claims, has heightened calls for the man’s arrest.
The unarmed teenager’s griefstricken mother said the video footage was “the icing on the cake.”
“Thank God for surveillance video,” Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for Martin’s family, told CBS This Morningon Thursday, “because obviously there was a conspiracy to cover up the truth and sweep Trayvon Martin’s death under the rug.”
Crump said the video refutes the claims of police and George Zimmerman that the 140-pound Mar- tin, 17, beat him up so badly his nose was broken, and that he shot the boy in the chest in self-defence on a rainy Florida evening a month ago.
“This certainly doesn’t look like a man who police said had his nose broken and his head repeatedly smashed into the sidewalk,” he said. Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother, said Zimmerman’s story doesn’t add up and called for his arrest. “This is not the first part of the evidence that they have had,” she said. “They have had the 911 tapes and they have also had witnesses. This video is clear evidence that there is some problem with this case and he needs to be arrested.” Zimmerman’s lawyer, Craig Sonner, argued the video, obtained by ABC News, was inconclusive and called the footage “very grainy.” He pointed out that four hours had lapsed between the time of the slaying and when his client was captured on video being led into police headquarters in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman had received first-aid during that time and had been “cleaned up,” he said. In the video, Zimmerman’s head and face are clearly visible, and there appear to be no obvious signs of any external injuries. There’s also no evidence of blood on the front of his T-shirt, often the byproduct of a broken nose. The developments — dubbed “George Zimmerman’s crumbling story” by the Washington Post on Thursday — are the latest in the heartbreaking case that has riveted a country that grapples with eversimmering racial tensions.
One of the lead investigators on the case also doubts Zimmerman’s claims and wanted to charge him that night with manslaughter. But Chris Serino was overruled by the Florida attorney’s office.
Richard Kurtz, the funeral director who prepared Martin’s body, has also weighed in, saying there were no signs of injuries on the boy’s hands that might have suggested he’d punched someone.
In a 911 call made by Zimmerman that night, the dispatcher is heard telling him not to follow Trayvon, but he ignores the instruction. Martin, meantime, was on his cellphone telling his girlfriend that someone was following him and that he was frightened. Zimmerman can be heard running, telling the dispatcher: “These assholes, they always get away.”