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Could be Z was pointing the gun @ Trayvon, and taunting him...

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With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, then climbed on top of him and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times before Zimmerman shot the unarmed 17-year-old to death, the Orlando Sentinel reported on Monday.

The Sentinel, citing unidentified authorities, said that is the account Zimmerman gave to police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses.

Zimmerman has not spoken publicly about what happened, but on that night, Feb. 26, and in later meetings, he described and re-enacted for police what he says happened.

According to his version of events, the Sentinel said, he had turned around and was walking back to his SUV when Martin approached him from behind, the two exchanged words and then Martin punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him. Zimmerman, 28, told police he shot the teenager in self-defense.

Zimmerman's account became public on the same day the Miami Herald reported that when Martin was shot to death in February, he had been suspended from school for having marijuana residue in his book bag.

According to the Sentinel, here is what police disclosed to the newspaper:

Zimmerman was on his way to a grocery store when he saw Martin walking through his gated community.

Martin was visiting his father's fiancee, who lived there. Zimmerman called police and reported a suspicious person, describing Martin as black, acting strangely and perhaps on drugs.

Zimmerman got out of his SUV to follow Martin on foot. When a dispatch employee asked Zimmerman whether he was following the teenager, Zimmerman said yes. The dispatcher told Zimmerman he did not need to do that.

There is about a one-minute gap during which police say they're not sure what happened.

Zimmerman told them he had lost sight of Martin and was walking back to his SUV when Martin approached him from the left rear, and they exchanged words. Martin asked Zimmerman whether he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cell phone, he told police.

Martin then said, "Well, you do now" or something similar and punched Zimmerman in the nose.

Zimmerman fell, and Martin got on top of him and began slamming his head into the sidewalk, Zimmerman told police. Zimmerman began yelling for help.

Several witnesses heard those cries, and there has been a dispute about from whom they came: Zimmerman or Martin.

Attorneys for Martin's family say Martin was the one yelling, but police say their evidence indicates it was Zimmerman. One witness, who has since talked to local television news reporters, told police he saw Zimmerman on the ground with Martin on top, pounding him, and the witness was unequivocal that it was Zimmerman who was crying for help.

Zimmerman then shot Martin once in the chest from very close range, authorities said, according to the Sentinel.

When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, had a swollen lip and had bloody cuts on the back of his head. Paramedics gave him first aid, but he said no to going to the hospital. He got medical care the next day.

Martin's troubles at school

The Miami Herald reported Monday that Trayvon Martin had been suspended three times.

The Herald said it had obtained a Miami-Dade Schools Police report showing that on Oct. 21, staffers monitoring a security camera at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School spotted Martin and two other students writing "W.T.F.," an acronym for "what the f---," on a hallway locker. A security employee who knew Martin confronted the teen and looked through his bag for the graffiti marker.

According to the Herald, the police report said that Martin's backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, which was described as a burglary tool in the report.

Martin was asked whether the jewelry, which was mostly women's rings and earrings, belonged to his family or a girlfriend. "Martin replied, 'It's not mine. A friend gave it to me,' " the Herald quoted the report as saying. Martin declined to name the friend.

School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation. "Martin was suspended, warned and dismissed for the graffiti," according to the report prepared by the Miami-Dade Schools Police.

That suspension was followed by one in February after in incident in which Martin was caught with an empty plastic bag with traces of marijuana in it, the boy's family's attorney confirmed. The Herald said it had obtained a school police report that specified two items: a bag with marijuana residue and a "marijuana pipe."

That suspension was the third for the teen. On Monday, the family also acknowledged that Martin had earlier been suspended for tardiness and truancy.

Reacting to the new school police report, Ben Crump, an attorney for the parents, said they "never heard anything like this about a bag of jewelry. … And anyway, it's completely irrelevant to what happened Feb. 26. They never heard this and don't believe it's true. If it were true, why wouldn't they call the parents? Why wasn't he arrested?

"We think everybody is trying to demonize him."

Martin had never been arrested, he said. The state Department of Juvenile Justice confirmed Monday that Martin does not have a juvenile offender record. The information came after a public records request by the Associated Press. http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/police-leak-details-of
-george-zimmermans-account-of-trayvon-martin-shooting/1222087 the other side:

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George Michael Zimmerman, the man at the center of the racially charged killing of an unarmed black teen, is a former altar boy, insurance salesman and college student.

And another label has also stuck in the public’s perception: frustrated cop wannabe.

Over the years, his scores of calls to police showed he pursued shoplifters and errant drivers with zeal, reporting pit bulls, potholes, children playing in the street, open garage doors and “suspicious” youths — usually black males — loitering in the street.

He peppered his calls with jargon familiar to police. In one case, he chased a reckless driver while calling 911 — the driver later told police he was terrified that Zimmerman was going to attack him. In another case, Zimmerman tailed a supermarket shoplifter until a police officer successfully arrested the thief.

On the night of Feb. 26, he tailed Trayvon Martin through the Retreat at Twin Lakes, the gated community where Zimmerman lived with his wife, describing his every move to a dispatcher who told him he didn’t need to follow the young man. A scuffle ensued and Zimmerman shot Trayvon dead. Zimmerman claims self-defense.

Dr. Laurence Miller, a Palm Beach County clinical psychologist who works with local police agencies, said he believes Zimmerman likely was acting out the “whole TV cop role in his head” when he confronted Trayvon.

“A lot of people like the power and control that law enforcement officers have but with that comes a tremendous amount of responsibility,” Miller said, pointing out that a police officer is the only profession that can use “coercive physical force” or lethal force to subdue a suspected criminal.

“People act like cowboys and like the power, but not the responsibility.”

What is known about Zimmerman comes from public records and interviews with the few who have defended the man’s reputation.

Zimmerman, one of four siblings, grew up in Manassas, Va. His father was a former military man who raised the children in a very strict, respectful household, neighbors recalled.

His mother, Gladys Zimmerman, was a courts employee of Peruvian descent. The family worshiped at All Saints Catholic Church, where Zimmerman served as an altar boy, neighbors said.

Kay Hall, his neighbor from across the street, said Zimmerman would often bring her dog home if he escaped from their yard, or help her family bring in groceries.

A few years back, he came by and asked George Hall, Kay’s husband, to write a letter of recommendation so that he could apply to a police agency. Hall gladly obliged.

Whether Zimmerman ever actually applied to a police agency is unclear. But according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, he never applied to take the Basic Abilities Test needed to enter recruit training.

However, in December 2008, he applied for a citizens’ police academy with the Seminole Sheriff’s Office. In his application, Zimmerman stressed his background with the law: He wrote that his father is a retired Virginia Supreme Court magistrate judge and his mother worked as a deputy clerk of courts.

He was accepted and completed the one-night-a-week, 14-hour program.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Heather Smith stressed that the program is simply an educational tool designed to engage citizens and teach them about policing.

“It’s not a training academy. Participants are not issued any type of sheriff’s equipment or deputization,” Smith said.

His prior contacts with the law would have given police agencies pause.

In 2005, according to an arrest report, a state agent arrested Zimmerman for battery on a law enforcement officer and obstructing justice. According to the report, agents with Florida’s Alcohol Beverage and Tobacco division were arresting several employees near the University of Central Florida.

Agent Paul Fleishman wrote that Zimmerman walked up to a pal under arrest and began chatting, refusing to leave. Zimmerman cursed him, Fleishman wrote, before pushing him and causing a “short struggle.”

The charge was later dropped when Zimmerman entered a “pre-trial diversion” program, which is not unusual for first-time offenders. The program usually entails paying fines and taking classes for anger management.

Zimmerman — in applying to enter the citizens’ police academy — later disputed the official version of the event, insisting that the agent never identified himself. “I hold law enforcement officers in the highest regaurd [sic] as I hope to one day become. I would never have touched a police officer,” Zimmerman wrote.

Before the case was resolved, he was also involved in a domestic dispute with his ex-fiancée, hair salon employee Veronica Zauzo.

Zauzo claimed Zimmerman was trolling her neighborhood to check on her. At her apartment, they spoke for about an hour when she asked him to leave. He asked for some photos and paperwork and she refused.

A pushing match ensued and her dog jumped up and bit him on the cheek, Zauzo claimed. Zimmerman, in a petition filed the next day, painted her as the aggressor, wanting him to stay the night.

“She accused me of going to another woman’s house or going to party,” wrote Zimmerman, who said Zauzo slapped, clawed and choked him.

In their petitions, both included previous allegations of violence. In the end, an Orange County circuit judge ordered them to stay away from each other for more than a year, according to court records. No charges were filed.

His domestic troubles continued in October 2007, when Zimmerman called police to report that the tires of his Dodge Durango were slashed and he suspected his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.

The man denied the claim and told officers he was so annoyed by text-message exchanges with Zimmerman that he was mulling a restraining order. None was filed, according to Seminole County records.

Over the years, records show, Zimmerman worked selling insurance, for which he earned a vocational certificate from Seminole State College.

He also worked briefly at a CarMax auto dealership, where his paycheck was garnished because of a credit-card debt.

Several years ago, Zimmerman and his wife moved into the Retreat at Twin Lakes, a multi-ethnic community that had been plagued by burglaries in recent months.

Zimmerman, according to neighbors, stepped up to organize the community watch, patrolling the neighborhood while walking his dog, toting his Kel Tek 9mm semiautomatic handgun, for which he held a concealed weapons permit.

One resident told The Miami Herald that Zimmerman implored her husband to arm himself. His next-door neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said Zimmerman always chatted with her in Spanish and was polite, once warning her husband to move his car lest it get towed from a prohibited sidewalk space.

Nevertheless, even supportive neighbors question the wisdom of taking a gun along on patrols.

That’s something that Miami Maj. Delrish Moss, who oversees the department’s community outreach unit, cautions against when speaking to city-organized citizen’s patrols. Last week, he brought up the Zimmerman case to his volunteers, stressing it’s best to leave weapons at home.

Leave the police aspirations and guns at home and focus on simply observing and reporting potential crime, Moss told them.

“In law enforcement, you always run into people who speak to you in cop jargon, in a way that you can tell they are some kind of frustrated cop,” Moss said. “For the most part, they are harmless and just love police officers, but sometimes, these conversations can be alarming.” http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/23/2712299_p3/george-zimmerman-self
-appointed.html are "colored" one way or the other, so how can anyone know the truth? And again, the police are "leaking" information, which is really helpful in getting an impartial jury...not!

Heard a lot of questions last night:

Where is evidence of Zimmeran's injuries? He refused medical treatment...it said he sought it the next day; where are the records of same? It says paramedics gave him first aid; did anyone SEE paramedics at the scene?

Why weren't the parents notified about this bag of jewelry? He was suspended for the "graffiti", but there's no mention of the jewelry.

"....much of it has been corroborated by witnesses". All I've heard is people saying they heard the cry for help--some think it was Zimmerman, others Martin, and that they saw Martin on top of Zimmerman, or Zimmerman on top of Martin (after he'd killed him).

How (and WHY!) does a kid deck someone 90 pounds heavier than him, wearing a gun?

This speaks to Wulf's claim that people have to be careful about what they wear, etc.:

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Miami Homicide Sgt. Ervens Ford was among the protesters at civic center.

“This is personal,” Ford said. “I have a son that age. I am getting ready to release him to the world. I have to expose him to things like this. I also have a 12-year-old. I have to be realistic about it: It very very well could have been either one of them.”

Like so many black fathers in America, Ford finds himself schooling his sons on what clothes to wear, what to say to a cop. He calls it “conflict resolution.”

“That man was following him around the way he was, placing Trayvon in fear. Had Travyon shot him and claimed ‘Stand Your Ground,’ Trayvon would have been arrested,” he said. “I’m saying this having been law enforcement for 25 years. I am saying this, and it is my conviction.”

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I think most people would agree that if that were the case, Trayvon would have been arrested.

So much was botched, claimed, leaked in this incident, who can know what is true? It's just a mess, and some of what we're hearing now is contrary to what we heard before from the police. I'm not sure what the relevance is of Trayvon's school records, but there's no record of violence whatsoever, while Zimmerman (who is described often as "a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain" -- reported in several stories, this from http://abcnews.go.com/US/trayvon-martin-arrest-now-abc-reveals-crucial
-phone/story?id=15959017) has several incidents of violence in his past.

I guess we can go on arguing about it until the cows come home (as the rest of the country seems to be doing!), but I doubt we'll ever know what really happened.