The 'Crime' Of Walking While Black.....the DEADLY consequences for a 16 year old.

[Peter Lemkin]

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The office of special prosecutor Anglea Corey released a trove of documents late last night revealing new details about the night George Zimmerman shot dead the teenager in Sanford, Florida. The evidence indicates a fight occurred between the two men but police determined the deadly encounter between Zimmerman and Martin was "ultimately avoidable" if Zimmerman had "remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement." The police also concluded, "there is no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter." Among the released documents was Trayvon Martin's autopsy. It showed Martin had died from a single gunshot wound to the chest fired from intermediate range. In addition, traces of marijuana were found in his blood.
New photos and medical records show Zimmerman suffered a broken nose, bruises and cuts on the back of his head. The new documents also show Sanford police received an anonymous tip less than two full days after the shooting before it became widely known to the public. The caller refused to identify herself but said that Zimmerman "...has a racist ideologies and... is fully capable of instigating a confrontation that could have escalated to the point of him having to use deadly force." The caller was never tracked down. In a few moments we will be joined by NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous, but first, we turn to a chilling recording of the police interviewing Trayvon Martin's girlfriend. She and Trayvon were talking on the phone in the moments leading up to his death.

PROSECUTOR: I want to focus on that day, February 26, when you know
obviously he was unfortunately killed, and I'm sorry to ask you about
this. But did you have conversations with him that day?

GIRLFRIEND: Yes.

PROSECUTOR: At some point did you find out that Trayvon was going to the store?

GIRLFRIEND: Around 6 something.

PROSECUTOR: OK, and did he tell you what store he was going to?

GIRLFRIEND: No. He just said [inaudible] store.

PROSECUTOR: OK, did he say why he was going to the store?

GIRLFRIEND: Yes.

PROSECUTOR: What did he say he was going to the store for?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah, his little brother. Some food and some drink.

PROSECUTOR: OK, yeah, tell me what happened as he's talking to you when
he's leaving the store on his way back home.

GIRLFRIEND: It started raining.

PROSECUTOR: It started raining, and did he go somewhere?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah, he ran to the, um, mail thing.

PROSECUTOR: I'm sorry what?

GIRLFRIEND: Like a mail, like a shed.

PROSECUTOR: Like a mail area, like a covered area, because it was raining?
So did he tell you he was already inside, like, the gated place?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah. He ran. That's when the phone hung up.

PROSECUTOR: I'm sorry?

GIRLFRIEND: The phone hung up and I called him back again.

PROSECUTOR: And what else did Trayvon tell you?

GIRLFRIEND: And like

PROSECUTOR: And I know this is difficult for you but just take your time
and tell us what you remember happened.

GIRLFRIEND: A couple minutes later, like, he come and tell me this man
is watching him.

PROSECUTOR: OK, did he describe the man that was watching him?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah, he said white.

PROSECUTOR: OK, did he say whether the man was standing, sitting…?

GIRLFRIEND: He was in a car.

PROSECUTOR: He was in a car? And what did he say about the man who was watching-

GIRLFRIEND: He was on the phone.

PROSECUTOR: He was on the phone? OK, and what did Trayvon say after that?

GIRLFRIEND: He was telling me that this man was watching him, so he,
like, started walking.

PROSECUTOR: He, Trayvon, started walking?

GIRLFRIEND: He gonna start walking. And then the phone hung up and
then I called him back again. And then, I said, 'What are you doing?'
He said he's walking, and he said this man is still following him,
behind the car. He put his hoodie on.

PROSECUTOR: He, Trayvon, put his hoodie on?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah, 'cause, he said, it was still a little bit dripping
water so he put his hoodie on. So I said, 'What's going on?' He said,
this man is still watching from a car. So he about to run from the
back. I told him, go to his dad's house. Run to his dad's house.

PROSECUTOR: Go to what?

GIRLFRIEND: Run to his dad's house.

PROSECUTOR: To his dad's house?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah. So he said he was about to run from the back, so the
next that I hear, he just run. I can hear that the wind blowing.

PROSECUTOR: So you could tell he was running at that time? OK. And then
what happened?

GIRLFRIEND: Then he said, he lost him.

PROSECUTOR: He lost what, the man?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.

PROSECUTOR: So was Trayvon, at that time, you could tell he was, like, out
of breath, like excited?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.

PROSECUTOR: OK. Take your time, I know this is difficult for you.

GIRLFRIEND: So he lost him. He was breathing hard. And by the sound of
his voice, his voice kind of changed.

PROSECUTOR: Who, Trayvon's?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.

PROSECUTOR: OK. What do you mean by that? His voice changed?

GIRLFRIEND: [inaudible]

PROSECUTOR: I'm sorry?

GIRLFRIEND: I know he was scared.

PROSECUTOR: I know what you are trying to tell me but if you could
describe to me how you could tell he was scared.

GIRLFRIEND: His voice was getting kind of low.

PROSECUTOR: So you could tell he was emotional, like somebody who was in fear?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.

PROSECUTOR: He was breathing hard?

GIRLFRIEND: He said he had lost him and he was breathing hard and I
told him 'Keep running.'

PROSECUTOR: So Trayvon said he started walking because he thought he had
lost the guy?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.

PROSECUTOR: OK.

GIRLFRIEND: I said, 'Keep running.' He said he ain't gonna run. 'Cause
he said he is right by his father's house. And then in a couple
minutes he said the man is following him again. He's behind him. I
said, 'Run!' He said he was not going to run. I knew he was not going
to run because he was out of breath. And then he was getting excited,
the guy's getting close to him. I told him, 'Run!' And I told him,
'Keep running!' He not going to run. I tell him, 'Why are you not
running?' He said 'I'm not gonna.' He was tired. I know he was tired.

PROSECUTOR: I am sorry, Trayvon said he was not running because he's
not going to run he said because you could tell he was tired? How
could you tell he was tired?

GIRLFRIEND: He was breathing hard.

PROSECUTOR: Real hard?

GIRLFRIEND: Real hard. And then he told me this guy was getting close!
He told me the guy was getting real close to him. And the next I hear
is, 'Why are you following me for?'

PROSECUTOR: OK. Let me make sure I understand this so, Trayvon tells you
the guy is getting closer to him and then you hear Trayvon saying
something.

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.

PROSECUTOR: And what do you hear Trayvon saying?

GIRLFRIEND: 'Why are you following me for?'

PROSECUTOR: 'Why are you following me for?'

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.

PROSECUTOR: And then what happened?

GIRLFRIEND: I heard this man, like an old man say, 'What are you doing
around here?'

PROSECUTOR: OK, so you definitely could tell another voice that was not
Trayvon and you heard this other voice say what?

GIRLFRIEND: 'What are you doing around here?'

PROSECUTOR: 'What are you doing around here?' OK.

GIRLFRIEND: And I call Trayvon, 'Trayon, what's going on? What's going on?'

PROSECUTOR: This is you saying that?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah. Then, I am calling him and he didn't answer.

PROSECUTOR: No answer from Trayvon?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah. I hear some like 'bump.' You could hear someone had bumped Trayvon. I could hear the grass.

PROSECUTOR: OK. So you could hear there was something going on, like something hitting something?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah. I could hear the grass thing.

PROSECUTOR: Out of the…?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.

PROSECUTOR: OK, and then what happened?

GIRLFRIEND: And then, I was still screaming, I was saying, 'Trayvon! Trayvon!'

PROSECUTOR: And there was no response?

GIRLFRIEND: Yeah and then the next thing the phone just shut off.

PROSECUTOR: The phone shut off?

GIRLFRIEND: It just shut off.)

BEN JEALOUS: It's heartbreaking. It's absolutely heartbreaking to listening to his childhood girlfriend, his childhood friend talk about the experience of listening to him be hunted on the street just before he was killed. I think it dramatizes for people the experience of millions of young people across this country every year when they are racially profiled, whether it's by community watch volunteers or by cops. In New York City, last year, there were more stop and frisks, more racial profiling incidents of young black men in that city than there are young black men in that city. Hopefully, this will help people understand just how our young people feel, how their friends feel when they are humiliated, degraded, mistreated, sometimes even killed simply because of their color.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Ben, the other material that was released last night, again, unusual in these kinds of situations that so much of the investigative work is being released, even before trial occurs. Your response to some of the other material you have heard about?
BEN JEALOUS: From what I have been able to read and go through, the most important thing that was released yesterday was a report that the top law enforcement officer on the scene, the lead investigator that day, said that this killing-said that there was no reason this killing should have happened, if Mr. Zimmerman had stayed in his car. Said that Mr. Zimmerman should have been charged for killing Trayvon and that that lead investigator, that top law enforcement officer on that scene that day, that his judgment was not respected by his superiors. And this gets down to why we need a different chief in Sanford. That his superiors said that we know you think Mr. Zimmerman should be charged, but we say no he should not be charged, and that's absolutely disturbing and outrageous that you would have a dead teenager on the ground, that the lead investigator would say that his killer should be charged, and then the superiors would say no don't charge him, and then they would go on to not even investigate it, not even knock on the door 70 feet away where his father was or call back that phone where his girlfriend had just listened to him be hunted down on the street.
AMY GOODMAN: Following up on these recordings that have been released, we wanted to play a few more. These are the audio recordings the police released last night of three witnesses who gave conflicting accounts of what they heard in the moments before George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin. We're going to begin with two women who were in a house close to the scene of the shooting in Sanford.

WITNESS 1: First of all, I was in the kitchen, making some coffee for me and my friends, and I had my window half up, and I hear somebody crying, like a young boy crying. So by the time me and my friends wear hear like a shot.

WITNESS 2: Gunshot.

WITNESS 1: Gunshot

POLICE: OK.

WITNESS 1: Gunshot. But I mean I thought it probably was something, kids playing with something. I walked out to my porch and I saw two
guys. I mean, it was very dark. It was night and most of the houses haven't turned on the lights. So I saw two persons, one lying on the floor, and the other one on top of him.

WITNESS 2: I mean that little kid was so skinny compared to him.

POLICE: Exactly, yeah, that's the impression that we all got. As far as

WITNESS 2: And I can tell you there was no fighting going on at the time that the gun went off. Because we were both in the kitchen making
coffee, the window was open, there was no fighting. And the fight that happened started way down the sidewalk, because the person on the very end of this block is the one who called the police originally because the fight broke out. Now the kid got shot way down here, you know, five doors down. I know they were not physically fighting at the time that gun went off, when we heard the shot, and the kid hit the
ground.

AMY GOODMAN: While the two women said that Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman were not fighting at the time of the shooting, another local resident gave a conflicting account.

WITNESS: There was a black man with a black hoodie on top of either a white guy, or now that I found out I think he was a Hispanic guy with a red sweatshirt on on the ground, yelling out Help!' And then you know I tried to tell him, Get out of here,' you know, Stop,' or whatever. And then the one guy on top in the black hoodie was pretty much just throwing down blows on the guy kind of MMA-style...yeah, like a ground-and-pound, on the concrete at this point. So at this point I
told him I was calling 911, I locked my door, went inside, heard a pop, never heard a gunshot before so I didn't know if it was a rock or something like that. We ran upstairs. As soon as I got upstairs I
looked down below and then I saw the guy in the black hoodie pretty much just laid out on the ground.

AMY GOODMAN: Again, these are recordings that were released by police in this trove of hundreds of audio recordings, photographs and police documents. Ben Jealous is joining us from Miami, Florida, not that far from Sanford where Trayvon Martin was killed. Ben, your response as you listen?
BEN JEALOUS: This and a bunch of information came out yesterday. You go through all of it and what has not changed is the basic facts that we know; that George Zimmerman is somebody about whom there were many complaints, that people thought he treated them in a way that was racist. George Zimmerman is somebody about whom there were many complaints, that people thought said he was a bully. George Zimmerman is somebody who had called the cops multiple times that year, always about a young black man that he thought was suspicious. George Zimmerman was somebody who was told to stay in his truck that day by the cops who he called and he chose to get out with a gun and track down a young man on the street trying to get away from him because he was afraid of him. And that young man is dead as a result.
It's not surprising to hear local residents have different perceptions. We know that many of them knew Mr. Zimmerman because he was their neighbor and some of them indeed might be trying to help with his defense by skew the story this way or that. But the basic facts have not changed. Trayvon Martin is dead. An innocent teenager is dead because a man with a gun who was told by the cops to stay in his car chose to get out with the gun and hunt down that young man on the street.