ORLANDO, Fla. — With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked George Zimmerman, then slammed his head into the sidewalk, Zimmerman told law-enforcement authorities.
Much of the account Zimmerman gave police has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say. There have been no reports that a witness saw the initial punch Zimmerman told police about.
Zimmerman has not spoken publicly about what happened Feb. 26. But that night, and in later meetings, he described and re-enacted for police what he says took place.
In his version of events, Zimmerman had turned around and was walking back to his SUV when Martin, 17, approached him from behind. The two exchanged words, and Martin punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him.
Zimmerman told police he shot and killed the teenager in self-defense.
Civil-rights leaders and more than a million other people have demanded Zimmerman’s arrest, calling Martin a victim of racial profiling and suggesting Zimmerman is a vigilante.
Martin was an unarmed black teenager who had committed no crime, they say, who was gunned down while walking back from a 7-Eleven with nothing more sinister than a package of Skittles and can of Arizona iced tea.
This is what the Sentinel has learned about Zimmerman’s account to investigators:
He said he was on his way to the grocery store when he spotted Martin walking through his gated community. Zimmerman called 911 and got out of his SUV to follow Martin on foot. When a dispatch employee asked Zimmerman whether he was following the 17-year-old, 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 lost sight of Martin and was walking back to his SUV when Martin approached him from the left rear. Martin asked Zimmerman whether he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cellphone, he told police. Martin then said, “Well, you do now,” or something similar and punched Zimmerman in the nose, according to the account he gave police.
Zimmerman fell to the ground, and Martin got on top of him and began slamming his head into the sidewalk, he told police.
Zimmerman began yelling for help.
Several witnesses heard those cries, and there has been a dispute about whether they came from Zimmerman or Martin.
Attorneys for Martin’s family say it was Martin, but police say their evidence indicates it was Zimmerman.
Martin was visiting his father’s fiancée, who lived there. He had been suspended from school in Miami after being found with an empty marijuana baggie. Miami schools have a zero-tolerance policy for drug possession.
Police have been reluctant to provide details about their evidence.
But after the Orlando Sentinel story appeared online Monday morning, City Manager Norton Bonaparte Jr. issued a news release saying there would be an internal-affairs investigation into the source of the leak and, if identified, the person or people involved would be disciplined.
He did not challenge the accuracy of the information.
At a news conference Monday, Martin’s mother and father and their attorneys called the report that their son was suspended from school because of a marijuana baggie irrelevant and needlessly hurtful.
“Even in death, they are still disrespecting my son, and I feel that that’s a sin,” said Martin’s father, Tracy Martin.
His mother, Sybrina Fulton, said, “They killed my son, and now they’re trying to kill his reputation.”
