ABC News has obtained exclusive police surveillance video of George Zimmerman taken the night he shot and killed Miami-Dade teen Trayvon Martin.
The video shows a handcuffed Zimmerman being taken out of a parked police cruiser and inside the Sanford, Fl. police headquarters on the night of Feb. 26 or early the following day.
Zimmerman and the 17-year-old had argued and struggled in a gated community near Orlando where Zimmerman lived and Trayvon was visiting with his father.
Zimmerman, a crime watch captain, said he fatally shot the teen in self-defense after he called 911 to report the teen was acting suspicious.
The killing of the teenager who attended Dr. Michael Krop Senior High in Miami-Dade has sparked national outrage.
The video is significant, the teen’s family said, because it appears to show that the muscular-looking Zimmerman is uninjured. It also offers the first public view of Zimmerman since the shooting.
News reports that cited anonymous police sources said Zimmerman told police that Trayvon decked the neighborhood watch volunteer and slammed his head on the concrete. Zimmerman’s attorney Craig Sonner has told television networks that the neighborhood watch volunteer’s nose was broken and he was left with a gash on the back of his head that would have required stitches had he gone to the doctor in time.
But there are no visible bruises on his face or cuts on the back of his shaved head in the video, and his shirt doesn’t appear to have blood on it in the front or back. There does not appear to be any grass on his jacket, as indicated in the police report.
The video was authenticated by the city of Sanford public information office. Although it’s unclear what time it was taken, it was likely taken after Zimmerman was administered first aid at the shooting scene.
“I think the video speaks for itself,” said the family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump. “You don’t see any broken nose. You don’t see any blood on his head. You don’t see any stuff on the back of his clothes. You have to ask why did this police chief, state attorney and now this acting police chief conspire to protect George Zimmerman for killing this unarmed teenager?
Appearing on CNN Wednesday night, Crump called the video “the smoking gun,” prove that t the self-defense allegation is not true.
Crump said he watched the video after getting a frantic call from Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton who was “in disbelief.”
“If this can’t get him arrested, I don’t know what can,” he said. “We’ve marched, we protested, we filed law suits, we found phone records and connected the dots. What else do we have to do to get George Zimmerman arrested?”
To read more, visit www.miamiherald.com.
