How did a kid armed with Skittles and iced tea get gunned down by an overeager neighborhood watch captain? And will justice be served? (FREQUENT UPDATES.)
This is being continuously updated; click here for the latest. Or read on for a primer.On the evening of February 26, Trayvon Martin—an unarmed 17-year-old African American student—was confronted, shot, and killed near his home by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman has not been charged with a crime. Since Martin's death and the revelation of more details, the case has drawn national outcry and sparked hot debate over racial tensions, vigilantism, police practices, and gun laws.
Brazil bars Chevron executives from leaving over spill
A federal court in Brazil has issued an order barring 17 executives from U.S. oil giant Chevron and Transocean Ltd. from leaving the country while it mulls criminal charges against them for an oil spill last year.Among the 17 who were ordered Saturday by a federal judge in Rio de Janeiro to give up their passports is an American: George Buck, the chief operating officer of Chevron's Brazil division.
| Who killed Trayvon Martin? |
George Zimmerman may have pulled the trigger, but he didn't act alone - he was aided and abetted by Florida's lawmakers. |
George Zimmerman was obviously responsible, of course. Nothing hidden there at all, except from the willfully blind police. Zimmerman didn't just murder Trayvon in cold blood, he had tracked him down like dog. The 911 tapes released so far include Zimmerman talking of "suspicious" black men: "These a**holes always get away."
Because the police dispatcher expressly told Zimmerman not to follow Martin, because Neighbourhood Watch guidelines forbid the carrying of guns, as well as the pursuit of suspects - requiring Watchers to call the police to the scene - not to mention the fact that Zimmerman wasn't actually part of a registered Neighborhood Watch group, and was a failed, wannabe cop who'd actually been arrested for attacking a real police officer - because of all that, it is perfectly obvious that Zimmerman's "Neighborhood Watch" activities were nothing but a ruse and a fantasy. Murdering a black teenager had arguably been Zimmerman's underlying (if perhaps unconscious) motive for everything he'd done for at least the past year, if not for wanting to be a cop in the first place.
US could bring hate charge in Fla. teen shooting
MIAMI—The U.S. Justice Department could bring a hate crime charge against the shooter in the killing of black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin if there is sufficient evidence the slaying was motivated by racial bias and not simply a fight that spiraled out of control, legal experts and former prosecutors say.
So far, only one such clue has surfaced publicly against 28-year-old George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot the 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26 in the central Florida town of Sanford. On one of his 911 calls to police that night, Zimmerman muttered something under his breath that some listeners say sounds like a racial slur. Zimmerman's father is white, and his mother is Hispanic.
"It sounds pretty obvious to me," said Donald Tibbs, a Drexel University law professor who has closely studied race, civil rights and criminal procedure. "If that was a racial epithet that preceded the attack on Trayvon Martin, we definitely have a hate crime."
Student shot to death on Mississippi State campus
A student was shot to death at a Mississippi State University residence hall late Saturday night, prompting campus-wide alerts as authorities searched for suspects who fled the scene.University spokeswoman Maridith Geuder said police received a call about the shooting at Evans Hall around 10 p.m. Saturday. The victim was taken to a hospital where he subsequently died.
Three male suspects fled the building in a blue Crown Victoria. As of early Sunday, no arrests had been made and the campus remained under emergency conditions.
Shortly after the shooting, the university began sending a series of text message alerts to students. Geuder said a team of university officials and police was meeting early Sunday. The team is automatically convened in emergencies under a school policy.
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