A black teen was shot dead on February 26th, by a volunteer captain of a Florida neighborhood watch, who claimed he acted in self-defense. George Zimmerman had a history of aggressive tactics, and neighbors of his gated community had issue complaints to local police and home owners association before the February 26 shooting.
Trayvon Martin who was 17 years of age at the time, was returning to his father’s house, with candy for his younger brother, when he was shot. In his hand he had a bag of skittles, and a bottle of Arizona. Zimmerman who is 28 years old, was patrolling the neighborhood in his care when he called police to report a suspicious person in the neighborhood. He was told to keep his distance, but there was a confrontation between him and Martin before the police reach the scene. Zimmerman claimed he fired his 9mm handgun in self-defense, and the teen was shot once in his chest and police had no reason to suspect he was lying. School officials say Trayvon was never a good kid in school. Always getting suspended, and always found in the middle trouble. People are using this to blame Trayvon for what happened to him, instead of Zimmerman.
A resident expressed his frustration about previously contacting the Stanford Police Department about Zimmerman approaching his and coming to his home, he was escorted out of and emergency Home Owners Association Meeting which was held on March 1st. There had been several complaints about George Zimmerman and his tactics in his neighborhood watch. Neither Stanford Police chief Bill Lee who is leading the investigation nor the member of city council who attended the meeting was available for comment.
It was lately released the voice heard crying for help on a 911 call just before Trayvon Martin was shot to death was not that of George Zimmerman, according to two forensic voice identification experts, one of whom told MSNBC on Sunday that he believes the evidence is strong enough to use in court. Zimmerman told police that he screamed for help during his confrontation with Martin. He claims the shooting was self-defense. Both experts, though, cautioned that they cannot identify who was screaming with absolute certainty, in part, because they have no audio samples from Martin. "I believe that's Trayvon Martin in the background, without a doubt,” Primeau said. "That's a young man screaming”
Because of the fact that there was no voice recording from Trayvon, officials cannot fully give the conclusion that indeed it was Trayvon who’s screams were heard seconds before he died. What these forensic voice experts can do is testify in court as expert witnesses and give their opinion on the case, and where the voice came from.
The case of Trayvon Martin quickly sparked a national firestorm. People made pictures, wrote statements, and even walked walk-a-thons while wearing a plain black hoodie, to show respect and to support Trayvon. But still, the case is not solved and justice hasn’t been served.
Careful when you begin to stick to the known facts or versions of the facts that have been reported. The hearsay about Zimmerman you put in your intro should be reserved for later in the article. Putting it upfront betrays a writer who is expressing an opinion, rather than just reporting facts. You'd be better off comparing and contrasting the hearsay evidence about both involved parties in a separate paragraph. The rest of your recap was able to let your reader know all the pertinent facts in the case.
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