I have seen a couple of different 911 calls coming out of the Trayvon Martin case. The first one was where the shooter George Zimmerman actually called 911 for help. This particular tape suggests a couple of things. It seems Zimmerman is looking for trouble instead of responding when trouble actually occurs. He even said that these guys “always get away.” What guys are he talking about? At least at that point, Trayvon Martin had done nothing. This could hurt a self-defense claim. The second related point is that Zimmerman unfortunately acts like a paranoid cop who finds suspicion in every possible stare, head movement, or anything else. I am not black, but even I have encountered police from time to time that were clearly oversuspicious.
The second 911 call was from a female in the neighborhood who heard the gunshot (perhaps it was two gunshots, but there seemed to be confusion on that point). This 911 call contained the voice of someone crying out. Apparently, it was Trayvon Martin. This call does not prove anything. It was obviously after he was shot, so the crying out was just a normal response from someone who had just been shot but was still conscious.
Neither 911 call is going to prove what actually happened. I’m not sure why people are claiming that any of these 911 calls uncover the truth, but they only provide a glimpse into what happened between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. With no other evidence, it would be difficult to prove anything above manslaughter beyond a reasonable doubt, and even that would be difficult to prove without a single witness to exactly what happened.
What likely happened here is that George Zimmerman was overzealous in trying to protect the neighborhood and escalated the situation to the point that someone was shot and killed. It may have even been that Trayvon did show some aggression in the eyes of George Zimmerman, but that very well could have been a situation where Trayvon felt he was actually the one defending himself when Zimmerman approached him.
While the available evidence from the 911 calls does not paint a picture of self-defense, we have a system that is based on guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Nothing I have seen from the 911 calls or anything else proves beyond a reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin. It only shows that he killed him, but we don’t know what happened in the seconds before the shooting. Zimmerman was not committing any crime by approaching Martin. If that were a crime, people could be arrested all day long. Whether a crime occurred after Zimmerman approached is the crucial question.
The following links lead to YouTube videos that have the relevant 911 calls. Note that the title of the first YouTube has a very deceptive claim. The 911 call does not contain the actual shooting. It was the screaming after the fact.
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