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. The video was made public by Zimmerman’s attorney.

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?”

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

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

Martin’s parents have said Zimmerman was the aggressor. They said Martin was walking back from a convenience store through the gated community in Sanford when Zimmerman spotted Martin and started following him.

In the video, Zimmerman said he grabbed his gun from a holster on his waist before Martin could get it, and shot Martin once in the chest as they fought on the ground outside townhomes. After firing, Zimmerman said he thought he missed.

“He sat up and said, ‘You got me. You got me, or something like that,”‘ Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said Martin had been on top of him, slamming his head against the ground and smothering his mouth and nose with his hand and arm. The tape shows two butterfly bandages on the back of Zimmerman’s head and another on his nose. There are red marks on the front of his head.

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Zimmerman claims Martin confronted him after the neighborhood watch leader had given up searching for him and was walking back to his truck. But there doesn’t appear to be a place to hide in the area where Zimmerman says Martin suddenly appeared.

Criminal defense attorney Blaine McChesney, who is not involved in the case, said he found parts of Zimmerman’s re-enactment difficult to envision, such as his account of how he was able to reach for his gun with Martin on top of him.

In the interrogation recording, Sereno told Zimmerman that Martin, an athlete with an interest in aeronautics, was “a kid with a future, a kid with folks that care.” The detective said Martin had only a bag of Skittles and an iced tea on him when he died. “Not a goon,” Sereno said.

He asked Zimmerman to explain why he doesn’t have bruises on his body or broken ribs. The two dozen punches Zimmerman claims he took are “not quiet consistent with your injuries,” Sereno said.

 


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