Audio of George Zimmerman Describing the Shooting

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From The New York Times:


He said the dispatcher told him not to follow Mr. Martin so he was returning to his vehicle when "the suspect emerged from the darkness and said 'You got a problem?'" 

Mr. Zimmerman said he responded, "No," but said that Mr. Matin told him, "You do now." Mr. Zimmerman said that when he tried to use his cellphone to dial 911 again, that Mr. Martin punched him in the face, causing Mr. Zimmerman to fall "backwards onto my back." 

"The suspect got on top of me," Mr. Zimmerman wrote in the statement. "I yelled, 'Help' several times." 

Mr. Zimmerman wrote that Mr. Martin had cursed at him while telling him to be quiet before he grabbed Mr. Zimmerman's head and slammed it into the sidewalk several times. 

"My head felt like it was going to explode," Mr. Zimmerman wrote, adding that he continued to scream for help. Mr. Zimmerman said that as he tried to slide from underneath Mr. Martin that the teenager "covered my mouth and nose and stopped my breathing." 

Next, Mr. Zimmerman wrote, "I felt the suspect reach for my now exposed firearm and say, 'Your gonna die tonight," while calling him an obscene name. 

"I unholstered my firearm in fear for my life as he had assured he was going to kill me and fired one shot into his torso." 

Mr. Zimmerman then wrote that Mr. Martin sat up and said, "You got me."

This account is--in every possible way--amazing. Hop over to the the Times to here the audio.

I think commenter Steve pretty much gets it right:

The new evidence emerging of Zimmerman's implausible narratives is very damaging to his defense. If his relatives want to go around telling the media ridiculous stories of the type seen only in bad action flicks (like "after I shot him, he said 'you got me'"), that doesn't actually hurt him at trial, because Zimmerman isn't responsible for what his family members may claim. But now that we know he himself was telling these unbelievable stories to the police, that makes it pretty likely the jury will hear about them, and view his newer, more plausible story with a jaundiced eye.

When his family was telling this story it sounded like something out of 1930s gangster flick. I thought it was just them. But they're repeating his story word for word. I don't know if it will be admissible or not, but it's worth remembering that it isn't Martin with the history of impulsive violence, it's Zimmerman.

There was some speculation in comments as to who released this evidence. The Times is reporting that it was Zimmerman's defense team.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore -- not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-'90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

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