Zimmerman sees a "suspicious" African American is his neighborhood, and calls the police department.
"This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about" and "looking at all the houses".
So what actual criminal act(s) did Zimmerman observe?
According to a police report, "there is no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter".
So you have a guy with a gun following/stalking an unarmed person for no reason other than his own biases and suspicions.
During the conversation, the dispatcher asked Zimmerman if he was (still) following Martin. When Zimmerman answered, "yeah," the dispatcher said,
"We don't need you to do that." Zimmerman responded, "Okay."
After Zimmerman ended this call with the police department dispatcher, a violent encounter took place between Martin and Zimmerman, which ended when Zimmerman fatally shot Martin 70 yards from the rear door of the townhouse where Martin was staying.
I don't condone Martin giving Zimmerman a beat down, although I would say that if anyone was doing anything to provoke a fight, it was Zimmerman, by making it apparent to Martin that he was being followed by someone in a threatening manner.
Odd as it might sound to some, I can actually see Martin's reaction as defending himself from a perceived aggressor, and that he was possibly "standing his ground", which is a bit ironic, considering that is Zimmerman's defense.
In the end, Zimmerman decided to pull out his gun and fire it point blank at Martin, killing him. Zimmerman unnecessarily put himself into that situation, and his actions unfortunately led to the murder of another man.
There were no life threatening injuries to Zimmerman.
I wonder what the debate would have sounded or how the trial would have gone had Martin killed Zimmerman instead of bloodying him up a little?
Martin: "This guy was following me around, and trying to make it obvious that he was stalking me and trying to intimidate me. I tried to lose him, but still he came after me. Finally, fearing for my life, I took the offensive and engaged Zimmerman in a fist fight."
Of course, as with most fist fights, George Zimmerman probably would have lived to testify against Martin for assault. Just like the current case, it probably could have gone either way.
The one known undisputed fact is that George Zimmerman followed an unarmed man, and then killed that unarmed man with a gun, who had not committed any crime.
Be interesting to see how the jury decides, and how the public reacts.
ADG