Video shows Zimmerman’s account to police of fatal fight

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla.

Detectives who questioned George Zimmerman in the days after he fatally shot Trayvon Martin grilled him on his story and said some of his statements were inconsistent, according to video and audio police tapes released Thursday.

The skepticism is at odds with a public perception that the police department didn’t fully investigate the neighborhood watch leader in the aftermath of the shooting. Zimmerman was arrested more than a month after the shooting, and only after the local police department said they were not going to charge him.

The evidence was made public by Zimmerman’s attorney almost a week before Zimmerman’s second bond hearing on a second-degree murder charge, and on the heels of unflattering telephone calls capturing Zimmerman and his wife talking in code about using money collected for a defense fund to pay credit cards.

The tapes give Zimmerman’s most detailed account yet of what led to the Feb. 26 shooting. In one video, he goes to the scene of the shooting and re-enacts for police what happened, answering probing questions from authorities.

In an interrogation at the police station, a detective points out inconsistencies in his story, particularly Zimmerman’s claim that Martin confronted him, punched him and slammed his head onto the ground when the teenager had no prior history of violence.

Detective Chris Sereno asks Zimmerman whether he was profiling Martin because he was black, a claim Martin’s parents have made.

“You know you are going to come under a lot of scrutiny for this,” Sereno said. “Had this person been white, would you have felt the same way?”

“Yes,” said Zimmerman, whose father is white and his mother Hispanic.

Zimmerman claims he shot the unarmed 17-year-old Martin teen in self- defense, under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.