Official Investigation Report: "No Evidence George Zimmerman is Racist"

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FBI report: No evidence George Zimmerman is racist

An FBI investigation into the shooting of black teenager Travyon Martin concluded that there's no evidence the suspect, George Zimmerman, was motived by racial bias or hatred.

By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / July 12, 2012

FBI report: No evidence George Zimmerman is racist

After interviewing 30 people familiar with George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain charged with killing African-American teenager Trayvon Martin, FBI agents found no evidence that the shooting was driven by racial bias or animus.

Before Thursday's release of a Department of Justice report, both sides have argued over whether smatterings of racially charged testimony should be released to the public before the trial – in particular, the testimony of “Witness 9,” whom state prosecutors say has described an “act” by Mr. Zimmerman that suggests “he had a bias toward black people.”

The report released Thursday made clear that the FBI found no one willing to go on the record as saying Zimmerman is racist. Even one of the most skeptical local investigators with the Sanford, Fla., police department, Chris Serino, suggested to the FBI that Zimmerman followed Trayvon “based on his attire,” not “skin color,” and added that he thought Zimmerman had a “little hero complex,” but is not racist, according to the Orlando Sentinel, which obtained copies of the document.

RECOMMENDED: How 5 young black men see the Trayvon Martin case

Prosecutors say Zimmerman profiled Trayvon as a criminal (though the teen was doing nothing wrong), followed him, confronted him, and then killed him after a brief scuffle. Zimmerman says he shot Trayvon in self-defense after the teen jumped him, knocked him down, and bashed his head against a sidewalk. The case caused a national uproar over racial profiling and gun laws after local police originally declined to charge Zimmerman. Forty-four days after the shooting, a special state prosecutor charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder.

The report outlines how FBI agents asked each person interviewed whether Zimmerman "displayed any bias, prejudice or irrational attitude against any class of citizen, religious, racial, gender or ethnic groups." No one said he had.

Despite the FBI’s findings, questions about Zimmerman’s mind-set and possible biases could continue to play a part in his upcoming trial. Three weeks ago, Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester ruled that the “Witness 9” statements should be released, but both the defense and the prosecution pleaded with him to reconsider. In a previously released statement, Witness 9 is quoted as saying, “I know George, and I know that he does not like black people.”

Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman's lawyer, has vowed to keep such statements out of the jury’s hands, saying they’re irrelevant to the case. But prosecutors say they’re ready to challenge the issue if Zimmerman tries to bolster his defense by suggesting that race did not play a role in his decisionmaking that night.

Other evidence released Thursday included:

Details of an old MySpace account featuring a 21-year-old Zimmerman’s writing voice (he's now 28). At one point, he disparaged Mexicans and gloated over having two felony allegations for accosting a police officer reduced to one misdemeanor. “Workin 96 hours to get a decent pay check, getting knifes pulled on you by every Mexican you run into!” Zimmerman wrote in 2005.

When the Web page was revealed earlier this year, Mr. O’Mara acknowledged that the statements could complicate the legal case if admitted into evidence.

While detailing a slew of robberies in the neighborhood over the winter, the FBI report also includes police documents showing that Zimmerman called 911 four times in the weeks before the shooting to complain about “suspicious” young black males prowling the neighborhood, after a spate of burglaries.

In one such call, Zimmerman described a black man going through trash cans in the neighborhood.

"He keeps going to this guy's house. I know him. I know the resident. He's Caucasian," Zimmerman said. "He is going up to the house and then going along the side of it and then coming straight and then going back to it. I don't know what he's doing. I don't want to approach him, personally."

During his later confrontation with Trayvon, Zimmerman ignored a dispatcher’s warning to stop following the person he had described as a suspicoius black man, and at one point mumbled, “These [expletive] always get away.”

Zimmerman is half-white and half-Hispanic. His family has testified that he was a mentor to two poor black kids in the Orlando, Fla., area, and rallied the community to help a homeless black man who had been sucker-punched by a police officer.

But questions about Zimmerman’s character and credibility have intensified this summer, after the judge remanded him back to jail for conspiring with his wife, Shellie, to lie about their finances so as to secure a lower bond, and perhaps to plan an escape from the US to flee prosecution. He was rereleased from jail last week on a $1 million bond.

RECOMMENDED: How 5 young black men see the Trayvon Martin case

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[Waterstar]

George Zimmerman "speaks out" for the first time during this Fox interview with Sean Hannity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuXsxRVjvMc

Source: Fox News

Zimmerman opens up about Trayvon Martin killing, says he prays for teen's parents

Published July 18, 2012

FoxNews.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/18/george-zimmerman-says-prays-for-trayvon-martin-parents-daily/#ixzz2150Tq0mq

George Zimmerman, in an interview Wednesday with Fox News' Sean Hannity, called the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin a "tragic situation" and "the most difficult thing I'll ever go through in my life."

But Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watch leader, also spoke in detail about what happened that fateful night in February, saying he had followed Martin because he looked suspicious running between houses in the rain.

Martin soon turned to confront Zimmerman and "asked me what my problem was" before the exchange escalated into violence, Zimmerman told Hannity in his first TV interview, conducted in an undisclosed location in Florida. The 28-year-old, with his attorney sitting by his side, said he reached into his pocket to find his phone to call 911 for a second time, and "I looked up and he punched me and broke my nose."

At one point Zimmerman said he heard Martin "telling me he’s going to kill me."

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., though he says he acted in self-defense. At first, "I didn't think I hit him," Zimmerman said, adding he only found out later that Martin had died.

Now he is in hiding and said he feels his life is in jeopardy, based on death threats he has received. He told Fox News that on the night of the shooting he had gone out to shop at Target -- "that's the last time I've been home."

The case drew intense national attention as speculation grew about the motives for the shooting, especially given that Martin was black. Zimmerman has white and Hispanic heritage.

He dismissed suggestions by some that he acted out of racism.

"I don't think it's fair that they rushed to judgment to assume that," he told Fox News.

Police initially declined to press charges, citing Florida's so-called "Stand Your Ground" law. But a special prosecutor who was called in to investigate concluded that the evidence didn't support Zimmerman's claims, and the murder charge was filed.

When asked what he would say to Martin's parents, Zimmerman said, "I would tell them that, again, I'm sorry."

"My wife and I don’t have any children," Zimmerman told Hannity. "I have nephews that I love more than life. I love them more than myself. And I know when they were born, it was a different unique bond and love that I have with them. And I love my children even though that they aren’t born yet.

"I am sorry that they buried their child. I can’t imagine what it must feel like. I pray for them daily."

Zimmerman, who is free on bond in Florida while awaiting trial, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Hannity had spoke with Zimmerman, 28, off the record in April when he contacted Hannity against the advice of his attorneys. Both Hannity and Zimmerman denied claims that Hannity offered the murder suspect any financial assistance or payment.

The interview concluded with Zimmerman looking into the camera and saying that he wishes the night hadn't ended in Martin's death.

"I do want to tell everyone, my wife, my family, my parents, my grandmother, the Martins, the city of Sanford and America that I'm sorry that this happened," he said. "I hate to think that because of this incident, because my actions, it's polarized and divided America. And I'm truly sorry."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/18/george-zimmerman-says-prays-for-trayvon-martin-parents-daily/#ixzz2150cxJIW

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Trayvon Martin’s parents respond to George Zimmerman’s claim of ‘God’s plan’: ‘I don’t know what God he worships’

In a series of television appearances Thursday morning, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton shot back at the Zimmerman's claim Wednesday night that the killing of their son was part of "God's plan."

By Philip Caulfield / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, July 19, 2012, 9:02 AM

Read more: http://www.nydailyne...1#ixzz2151KYivC

Trayvon Martin's parents won't accept George Zimmerman's apology for shooting their son.

In a series of television appearance on Thursday morning, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton shot back at the Zimmerman's claim Wednesday night that the killing of their son was part of "God's plan."

"I don't understand what God he worships? It's not the same God I worship," Tracy Martin told "Fox and Friends."

"That's heartless to say that it was 'God's plan' that he took our child's life," Martin added.

Zimmerman's interview on Fox News Channel's "Hannity" was his first since he killed the unarmed teen with a single shot to the chest on Feb. 26.

During the interview, Zimmerman - who was arrested a month after the shooting and charged with second-degree murder - said he shot Martin as a last resort after the teen broke his nose, slammed his head into the concrete, told him he was going to die and reached for Zimmerman's gun.

The volunteer watchman said he was not following the teen but keeping “an eye on him” when Martin confronted and then attacked him.

But offered an apology to the boy's parents, saying that he prayed for them daily.

"I am sorry that they buried their child. I can't imagine what that feels like," Zimmerman said.

"I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that wouldn't have put me in a position where I had to take his life."

Martin's parents said there was something he could have done - stayed in his car.

"He made a rush to judgment to judge Trayvon as a criminal, as suspicious," Tracy Martin told CNN. "He got out of that car. He put Trayvon in that position."

"He cannot … pick a fight and then say, 'He put me in this position,'" he said.

When asked if they'd be willing to talk to Zimmerman, Martin's parents said "absolutely not."

"My son was murdered a couple months ago," Fulton told Fox. "It not something I can stomach right now."

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On the Zimmerman "apology". How can one accept an apology which was never truly given?

Zimmerman basically said: "I'm sorry.... I'm sorry that they buried their child." We too often don't listen to what is being said. Where in those words is an apology for taking the life of the young man? Where in those words is an apology for the death of the young man? Nowhere. "I'm sorry that they buried their child."

[Waterstar]

Fox's conservative, political contributor Michelle Malkin, who not so long ago here would have probably had to do the paper bag test, is speaking out in response to the George Zimmerman interview, saying that people are "playing the race card again" and are "rushing to judgment".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gLpq1p2zj8