New documents, audio and video have been released in the case against George Zimmerman who is charged with the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin. Below are updates on statements Zimmerman made to police, made public as part of discovery, which have been released by his defense team.
[Updated at 8:14 a.m. ET] Zimmerman told police that at some point during the exchange with Martin he began hitting his head into the sidewalk.
"When he started doing that, I slid into the grass to try to get out from under him ... I'm still yelling for help," Zimmerman told investigators.
Martin, he said, put his hand over Zimmerman's mouth and nose and told him, "You're going to die tonight."
"When I slid, my jacket and my shirt came up, and when he said, 'You're going to die tonight,' I felt his hand go down my side, and I thought he was going for my firearm, so I grabbed it immediately, and as he banged my head again, I just pulled out my firearm and shot him."
When he did, he said Martin, who had been on top of him, fell away and said, "All right. You got it. You got it."
Zimmerman claimed in the interview he was driving to the grocery store February 26 when he saw Martin walking in his neighborhood. He said he pulled over and called a police non-emergency number "to report a suspicious person."
He noted there had been some burglaries in the area, prompting him to start a neighborhood watch program. He said he had never seen Martin before, and thought it was odd that although it was raining, "he was just walking casually, not like he was trying to get out of the rain."
As he spoke to the dispatcher, he said Martin circled his vehicle, but he "lost visual of him" and got out of the vehicle to find him. The dispatcher, he said, told him "we don't need you to do that," and he was heading back to the vehicle when Martin jumped out, asking him, "What the f-'s your problem?"
He said he told Martin, "I don't have a problem," but the youth replied, "Now you have a problem," and attacked him. He said he fell backward after being punched in the nose, and "he was wailing on my head."
Zimmerman told police he yelled for help repeatedly, and heard one man say he was going to call 911.
"I screamed 'Help me' probably 50 times, as loud as I could," he said.
Read Zimmerman's written statement to police (PDF)
[Posted at 7:50 a.m. ET] In an initial interview with police following the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman described a life-and-death struggle that began when the youth "jumped out from the bushes."
Zimmerman said Martin punched him repeatedly in the face. "I started screaming for help. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe."
He said Martin "grabbed my head and started hitting it in the sidewalk."
The audio of the Zimmerman's first interview with police investigators was made public late Wednesday as part of the discovery items released by his defense team.
Zimmerman, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in Martin's February 26 shooting death. Zimmerman has claimed he shot Martin in self-defense, but Martin's family and civil rights activists from across the country claim that Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, racially profiled Martin and ignored a 911 dispatcher's advice not to follow him.
Read some of the previous documents in the Zimmerman case
FULL STORY
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yeah yeah...a life and death struggle for the victim martin...z-man has zero credibility...
..and you do? Another armchair juror.
You must be blaque
There you have it folks! Let him free!
How do you jump out from the bushes when your talking on the phone?
Who says he was talking on the phone? Hmm? His girlfriend? surprise surprise. No one can back that story up and the rest of the evidence supports Zimmerman.
I would recommend you not choose law enforcement as a profession.
did you really just ask that????? Wow....I will help you then, cause sounds like you need it. There are these things called headphones, which he supposedly was wearing. They hava a mic on then. I guess he was speaking through those??????
It REALLY is not that hard.......i mean, 90% of people are yapping on their cell while driving. While they are doing that, they are cutting people off, driving 25 in a 60, and running over kids.
agreed
you sound like the prosecution, and the answer is????? I'm sorry I don't understand the question. blank stare, I'm as innocent as a lamb look, and my voice is as calm as the ocean sound in a sea shell
Makes no sense when you contrast it to phone conversation Martin was having with his girlfriend and the details of the actual crime scene.
The truth will eventually come out that Zimmerman was the aggressor.
when is the trial going to start?
Still trying to stoke a story thats been burning out, CNN??? Nothing in this article is new.
Nothing new? Accept that Zimmerman is a liar with no credibility. When you change your story that significantly and it is inconsistent with 911 recordings, its pretty easy to see how a reasonable person can conclude that Zimmerman was the aggressor and is a murderer.
Who cares about his credibility. The physical evidence lines up with his version of events.
I agree the video and picture evidence from that night show he was pretty badly beaten and there wasn't a scratch on trayvon except for the fatal bullet wound. Regardless of anything else the prosecuting attorney was stupid to try and get this tried as a second degree murder. You can tell because they didn't even go to the grand jury for it classic sign of week evidence to support your charge.
He's lying.
not surprised in the least the kid jumped out from the bushes. dumb kid. look where it got him.
The phone conversation wasn't recorded. You basically just have the word of his girlfriend who didn't even bother trying to find out if he was okay and who of course is biased. That isn't real evidence.
Not to mention the girlfriend didn't even GIVE a story for about 3 weeks. AFTER she had a chance to get her story together.
This is about the fifth time the story has changed. You should keep it straight, Mr. Z.
how do you know the media hasn't changed his story?? Ive heard about 15 different variations of what happened. you're telling me they were all made up by zimm? Please dont be so naive.
There may have been some details that have been inconsistant as is the case with any version of events in any crime. All cases have minor inconsistancies. But this isn't a change in the story. He has claimed Martin attacked him from the beginning and how can this be a change in his story when this is the original story he gave police?
Zimmy has never changed his "story"-you really need to review all the evidence before you continue to embareass your self-spelling intentional
Let Zimmerman free the prosecutor pressed charges for political spot light, trayvon was just a violent black gang memver
Trayvon did how we do. Peace young brutha. Kill all them white devils in heaven.
Please kill yourself..oh wait, you are in Detroit..I'm sure you'll be dead soon enough. Piece of sh*&, hope you burn Detroit Black!
you could very well be the 1st to get taken out when the rest of MI. cleans out whats left of the ghetto known as Detroit-we can't even get anyone to buy it the way it is
jerry, the "story" is not new. it's new to you, it was taken RIGHT after it happened.
This is exactly what happened and this is an example of people trying to make this a race issue. If a boy jumped out of the bushes and tried to kill me then it is every man for himself then. Zimmerman was suppose to lay there and let him do this to him because of skin color! NO WAY! People need to step up and say enough is enough on this race issue pertaining to this case. Zimmerman is being put through hell because the juvenile was BLACK! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ON THE RACE ISSUE!
All the evidence supports Zimmerman's story. This is a political railroad.