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That's when the two met and Martin was killed... police say could have been avoided if he did not leave his car as directed by the 911 dispatcher.

The dispatcher said nothing about not exiting his car. It appears that Zimmerman was already on foot and following when the dispatcher asked if he was following, heard the affirmative, and then said that they really didn't need for him to do that. It appears that is when Zimmerman lost sight of Martin, in other words, was no longer following him, and started to return to his vehicle.

> "...police say could have been avoided if he did not leave his car as directed by the 911 dispatcher." [ABC story]
> "The dispatcher said nothing about not exiting his car." [aruanan]

You're right. He didn't. I'm not even sure that Zimmerman continued to follow Martin after the dispatcher said that he didn't need him to do that. At about 1:27 of the audio of the Zimmerman call the dispatcher says, "Just let me know if he does anything, ok." Zimmerman: "How long until you get an officer over here?" Dispatcher: "Yeah we've got someone on the way, just let me know if this guy does anything else." [Wikipedia transcript]

So at that point the dispatcher himself has told Zimmerman to do something that he'll need to keep Martin in sight to do. Zimmerman starts giving directions to where he is, but then Martin starts running, and Zimmerman tells the dispatcher. The dispatcher asks, "He's running? Which way is he running." To answer that, though, Zimmerman has to keep him in sight, and apparently starts running himself (he seems to have trouble keeping his breath while speaking). Zimmerman: "Down towards the other entrance to the neighborhood." Dispatcher: "Which entrance is that that he's heading towards?"

Again, to be sure about the answer, Zimmerman has to keep Martin in view. When the dispatcher realizes that Zimmerman isn't staying where he was, though, he asks, "Are you following him?" Zimmerman: "Yeah." Dispatcher: "Ok, we don't need you to do that." Zimmerman: "Ok."

Zimmerman continues to sound winded as he makes the next few comments, but that may just be because he was running previously. In any case he stops sounding winded soon afterward, and at one point says that he doesn't know where Martin is. So he's not following him at that point.

Obviously Zimmerman and Martin meet up eventually, but exactly how that happened we don't know. The understanding with the dispatcher was that the police would call Zimmerman to find out where he was when they arrived. Zimmerman: "Actually could you have them call me and I'll tell them where I'm at?" Dispatcher: "Okay, yeah that's no problem." Zimmerman wasn't expected to stay in the same place, and he was free to move around.

Martin knew that Zimmerman had been following him previously, so when they met later that could have led to the conversation reported by Martin's girlfriend. Martin: ""What are you following me for?" Zimmerman: "What are you doing here?" I can see Martin being annoyed, but that doesn't justify an attack. His attack on Zimmerman was the criminal act that caused him to be shot -- in self defense, as the injuries to Zimmerman indicate.