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US police pressed to make arrest in Florida teen's death
Source: Agencies |
March 22, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CIVIL rights leaders in the United States pressured authorities to make an arrest in the case of an unarmed black teenager shot to death by a neighborhood watch captain after declaring victories in getting federal and state officials to investigate.
At a town hall meeting on Tuesday evening in Sanford, Florida, where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot last month, officials from the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Nation of Islam urged residents to remain calm but demand that the shooter, George Zimmerman, be arrested.
Zimmerman has not been charged in the February 26 shooting and has said he shot Martin, who was returning to a gated community after buying candy at a convenience store, in self-defense after Martin attacked him. Police said Zimmerman is white; his family says he is Hispanic.
"I stand here as a son, father, uncle who is tired of being scared for our boys," said Benjamin Jealous, national president of the NAACP. "I'm tired of telling our young men how they can't dress, where they can't go and how they can't behave."
The case has ignited a furor against the police department of the Orlando suburb, prompting rallies and a protest in Governor Rick Scott's office Tuesday. The US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said it is sending its community relations service this week to Sanford to "address tension in the community."
An online petition urging local authorities to prosecute Zimmerman had drawn more than 700,000 signatures at website Change.org as of early yesterday.
The federal agency has opened a civil rights probe into the shooting, and Seminole County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger said a grand jury will meet on April 10 to consider evidence in the case.
Earlier, an attorney for Martin's family revealed the teenager told his girlfriend just moments before he was killed that he was being followed. "'Oh he's right behind me, he's right behind me again,'" Martin told his girlfriend on his cellphone, attorney Benjamin Crump said.
After Martin encountered Zimmerman, the girl thought she heard a scuffle "because his voice changes like something interrupted his speech," Crump said. The phone call ended before the girl heard gunshots.
At a town hall meeting on Tuesday evening in Sanford, Florida, where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot last month, officials from the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Nation of Islam urged residents to remain calm but demand that the shooter, George Zimmerman, be arrested.
Zimmerman has not been charged in the February 26 shooting and has said he shot Martin, who was returning to a gated community after buying candy at a convenience store, in self-defense after Martin attacked him. Police said Zimmerman is white; his family says he is Hispanic.
"I stand here as a son, father, uncle who is tired of being scared for our boys," said Benjamin Jealous, national president of the NAACP. "I'm tired of telling our young men how they can't dress, where they can't go and how they can't behave."
The case has ignited a furor against the police department of the Orlando suburb, prompting rallies and a protest in Governor Rick Scott's office Tuesday. The US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said it is sending its community relations service this week to Sanford to "address tension in the community."
An online petition urging local authorities to prosecute Zimmerman had drawn more than 700,000 signatures at website Change.org as of early yesterday.
The federal agency has opened a civil rights probe into the shooting, and Seminole County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger said a grand jury will meet on April 10 to consider evidence in the case.
Earlier, an attorney for Martin's family revealed the teenager told his girlfriend just moments before he was killed that he was being followed. "'Oh he's right behind me, he's right behind me again,'" Martin told his girlfriend on his cellphone, attorney Benjamin Crump said.
After Martin encountered Zimmerman, the girl thought she heard a scuffle "because his voice changes like something interrupted his speech," Crump said. The phone call ended before the girl heard gunshots.
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