Think You Know George Zimmerman? New Timeline and Profile Could Change the Perception (& the Case)

When the Trayvon Martin case first started garnering national attention, there were many that thought they knew who George Zimmerman was: an overzealous racist with a vendetta against young black men who was on a mission to assert power with his gun. But then little details started emerging, such as pictures of Zimmerman’s bloody head that could bolster his self-defense claim; CNN even backtracked and said the tape it once suggested showed Zimmerman uttering a racist slur was actually him most likely saying it was “cold.”

And now, Reuters has put together a detailed profile of Zimmerman that seems to suggest he was a concerned citizen that was trying to help fix his community and those in it reeling from recent crime. He was a compassionate neighbor, it seems, not a lunatic with a gun.

“During the time Zimmerman was in hiding, his detractors defined him as a vigilante who had decided Martin was suspicious merely because he was black,” Reuters reports. “After Zimmerman was finally arrested on a charge of second-degree murder more than six weeks after the shooting, prosecutors portrayed him as a violent and angry man who disregarded authority by pursuing the 17-year-old.

“But a more nuanced portrait of Zimmerman has emerged from a Reuters investigation into Zimmerman’s past and a series of incidents in the community in the months preceding the Martin shooting.” [Emphasis added]

So what does it show? For starters, it was an animal control officer who told Zimmerman he should get a gun after a pit bull was menacing him and his wife. His friends, however, never even knew he had a firemarm until about two months ago. And, Reuters says, “He was raised in a racially integrated household and himself has black roots through an Afro-Peruvian great-grandfather – the father of the maternal grandmother who helped raise him.”

Business Insider put together some chronological bullet points highlighting the article’s most important points:

•Zimmerman grew up in a mixed-race household •He was an altar boy at his Caltholic church from age 7-17 •He is bilingual •After he finished high school, he studied for and got an insurance license •In 2004, Zimmerman and a black friend opened an Allstate insurance office (which soon failed) •Zimmerman’s 2005 arrest for “resisting arrest, violence, and battery of an officer” occurred after he shoved an under-cover alcohol control agent at a bar when the agent was trying to arrest an underage friend of his •Zimmerman married his wife, Shellie, in 2007. They rented a house in Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is about 50% white, 20% Hispanic, and 20% black. •In 2009, Zimmerman enrolled in Seminole State College •In the fall of 2009, a pit bull broke free twice and once cornered Shellie in the Zimmermans’ yard. George Zimmerman asked a police officer whether he should buy pepper spray. The cop told him pepper spray wasn’t fast enough and recommended that he get a gun. •By the summer of 2011, Twin Lakes “was experiencing a rash of burglaries and break-ins.” In several of the cases, witnesses said the robbers were young black men •In July 2011, a black teenager stole a bicycle off the Zimmermans’ porch •In August of 2011, a neighbor of the Zimmermans, Olivia Bertalan, was home during the day when two young black men entered her house. She hid in a room upstairs and called the police. When the police arrived, the two men, who had been trying to take a TV, fled. One of them ran through the Zimmermans’ yard. •After the break-in, George Zimmerman stopped by the Bertalans and gave Olivia a card with his name and number on it. He told her to visit his wife Shellie if she felt unsafe. •The police recommended that Bertalan get a dog. She moved away instead. Zimmerman got a second dog–a Rottweiler. •In September, several concerned residents of the neighborhood, including Zimmerman, asked the neighborhood association to create a neighborhood watch. Zimmerman was asked to run it. •In the next month, two more houses in the neighborhood were robbed. •A community newsletter reminded residents to report any crimes to the police and then call “George Zimmerman, our captain.” •On February 2, 2012, Zimmerman spotted a young black man looking into the windows of a neighbor’s empty house. He called the police and said “I don‘t know what he’s doing. I don’t want to approach him, personally.” The police sent a car, but by the time they arrived, the man was gone. •On February 6th, another house was burglarized. Witnesses said two of the robbers were black teenagers. One, who had prior burglary convictions, was soon caught with a laptop stolen from the house. •Two weeks later, Zimmerman spotted Travyon Martin and called the police. The last time he had done this, the suspect got away. This time, he disregarded police instructions and followed. A few minutes later, Martin was dead.

Is it possible that Zimmerman is an angry racist? It is. But as Business Insider wonders, “doesn’t it make you feel a bit differently about Zimmerman?”

The 911 call/s and the timeline appear to indicate George Zimmerman did not pursue Trayvon Martin in the sense of chasing a person, but instead only attempted to maintain a line of sight at a distance to keep Trayvon Martin under observation for the purpose of directing the police to Trayvon Martin. When Trayvon Martin went around the corner of the Townhomes, he was no longer visible from George Zimmerman's position inside his vehicle.

Since the vehicle could not follow Trayvon Martin between the buildings, the only way to reestablish a line of sight to observe Trayvon Martin's movements until the police arrived was to leave his vehicle and go to the corner of the buildings around which Trayvon Martin passed on his way southwards. By the time George By the time George Zimmerman reached the corner of the buildings and could look southwards to see where Trayvon Martin had gone, George Zimmerman could no longer see Trayvon Martin and the 911 dispatcher was suggesting they did not need George Zimmerman to continue southwards to see where Trayvon Martin could have disappeared out of sight. George Zimmerman apparently turned around and was going back to his vehicle to meet the police at the clubhouse when Trayvon Martin spoke to and challenged George Zimmerman while standing nearby on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the buildings.

It appears as though Trayvon Martin had moved eastwards around the coner of the building, went far enough southwards while out of sight of George Zimmerman to a place where he could pass between or around the buildings and back eastwards to the sidewalk running between the buildings, and travel northwards up this sidewalk almost far enough to intercept George Zimmerman as George Zimmerman was returning from the corner of the building to his vehicle. If so, there is no way in which George Zimmerman could have been chasing Trayvon Martin in the sense of chasing him to confront him. Otherwise, George Zimmerman would have also had to have been close enough behind Trayvon Martin to see him going southwards along the sidewalk and street before ducking between the buildings or passing around the south end of the building complex. When looking at the Google Streetview and aerial photographs, you can see it is a long way southwards before a person can duck between the buildings or pass around the south end of the buildings to reach the eastside sidewalk between the buildings. George Zimmerman could not have been anywhere near Trayvon Martin from the time he left his vehicle, went eastwards to the corner of the building, and returned towards his vehicle to meet the police.

The only way in which Trayvon Martin could have been in the position where the fatal confrontation with George Zimmerman took place is for Trayvon Martin to have moved a great distance northwards up the sidewalk between the buildings and thereby doubling back to the same area he came from minutes earlier. The townhome where Trayvon Martin was supposed to be visiting was behind him and in the same direction where he had just come northwards from only moments before he was engaged in the physical assault and battery with George Zimmerman. In other words, Trayvon Martin was in complete control of whether or not a physical confrontation could occur with George Zimmerman. To avoid such a confrontation, all Trayvon Martin needed to do was enter the townhome where he was supposed to be staying, stay in close proximity outside the townhouse, or continue southwards and eastwards beyond George Zimmerman's ability to watch his direction of travel. Nothing George Zimmerman could have done would have prevented Trayvon Martin from remaining out of George Zimmerman's line of sight and observation, much less any ability to provoke a physical engagement. This is especially true if Trayvon Martin had simply gone into the townhome in which he was visiting.

The way in which the news media uses the word “pursue” to misrepresent the events is about as reprehensible as it can get. The homeowners association and the police were clearly interested in have the neighborhood watch actually watch the movements of any person in the neighborhood who could reasonably appear to be one of the people who had been burglarizing these townhomes. A watchman can hardly be expected to watch a suspicious person when the person being watched from a distance makes an obvious attempt to escape being watched by ducking running around the corner of some buildings. out of view. Following or pursuing a suspect from a distance of 50 feet to a hundred or more feet is a reasonable and legal means of observing the movements of people you have never seen before among your homes, and it in no way signifies a desire or willingness to engage in a physical confrontation. The way in which the news media misportrays these facts is quite unacceptable.

What occurred after Trayvon Martin returned northwards and intercepted George Zimmerman as he was returning to his vehicle is another matter. It remains to be explained, however, why anyone would think that George Zimmerman would want to maliciously initiate a physical confrontation with Trayvon Martin, shoot, and kill hi when George Zimmerman knew full well the police were already on the way and due to arrive any minute.

Trayvon Martin, on the other hand, did not know the police were already on their way and about to arrive at any minute. When Trayvon Martin failed to return into the townhome in which he was staying, moved northwards up the sidewalk to a position where he could intercept George Zimmerman's return to this vehicle, and spoke to George Zimmerman as testified by his girlfriend on the cellphone, Trayvon Martin clearly initiated the personal contact with George Zimmerman by aggressively challenging George Zimmerman's right to be there. This is apparent from the evidence for the timeline from the 911 call and reports of Trayvon Martin's girlfriend on the cellphone, and layout of the buildings.

Perhaps George Zimmerman could have avoided the physical confrontation by not walking down the short piece of sidewalk in response to Trayvon Martin asking George Zimmerman why he was following Trayvon Martin. The again, it may be that Trayvon Martin could have simply been polite and gone peacefully on his way back to the townhome after George Zimmerman answered the question by telling Trayvon Martin he only wanted to know if he was a guest of a resident and not a suspect in the recent burglaries. It is also possible that Trayvon Martin could have run the rest of the way up the sidewalk and assaulted George Zimmerman and threatened George Zimmerman's life anyway, no matter what George Zimmerman did or did not do. As far as we have anyway of knowing, Trayvon Martin had recently assaulted a school bus driver as one his friend's social networking message/s indicate, and Trayvon Martin found some reason to do so again with George Zimmerman. If so, Trayvon Martin made numerous mistakes ranging from not going home to his final mistake of attempting to bash out the brains of a man on a sidewalk who is armed with a firearm.

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