Post date: Jun 21, 2012 7:10:21 PM
SANFORD, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (GZLEGALCASE.COM HANDOUT) - "You're going to die tonight" were among the last words Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman heard from Trayvon Martin before he shot and killed the unarmed black teenager, Zimmerman told police, in statement recorded on video at the scene of the shooting, and posted by Zimmerman's legal team on their website.
Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman gives a blow-by-blow account of what happened on the night he shot dead Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, in a video statement released by his lawyers.
The death threat came as Martin was pounding Zimmerman's head into the ground and trying to smother him, according to Zimmerman's statements to detectives in the central Florida town of Sanford soon after the killing on a rainy night in February.
The video reenactment was released by Zimmerman's lawyers, giving the public the opportunity to hear Zimmerman's account of what happened on the night of February 26 in his own words for the first time. Reuters acquired the video from the legal team's website on Thursday (June 21).
The outline of Zimmerman's account has been known for months. The deadly encounter began when Zimmerman spotted Martin walking slowly through a gated community in Sanford, and reported him in a non-emergency call to police as a suspicious person.
Zimmerman said he began following Martin but then lost track of him, only to have him reappear suddenly and punch him to the ground.
According to Zimmerman, Martin then got on top of him and began beating him, repeatedly slamming his head into the concrete sidewalk.
"I felt like my body was on the grass and my head was on the cement and he just kept slamming and slamming, and I kept yelling 'help, help, help' as loud as I could," said Zimmerman.
Zimmerman said he called for help, but during the struggle he thought Martin was reaching for the handgun he was carrying in a holster attached to his waistband. He recalled Martin saying "you're gonna die tonight."
"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."
Zimmerman said that he fired his gun "one time."
"I shot him and I didn't think I hit him, 'cause he sat up and said 'you got me, you got it, you got me, you got it' - something like that," said Zimmerman. "So I thought he was just saying 'I know you have a gun now - I heard it - I'm giving up'."
After the shot was fired, Zimmerman said he got on top of Martin and held his arms apart, but he could not recall whether he pushed Martin off of him or whether the teenager fell off of him.
The release of Zimmerman's statements to police came soon after Sanford officials announced that the police chief whose department initially failed to arrest Zimmerman was fired on Wednesday.
Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee had been on paid leave since March 22 amid outrage over his handling of the racially charged case.
Lee contended that Zimmerman was protected under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which gives people who feel threatened broad latitude to use deadly force to defend themselves.
Zimmerman, who is back in custody after the recent overturning of his release on bond, has since been charged with second-degree murder and faces 25 years to life imprisonment if convicted at a trial for which no date has yet been set.