at 7:36 last evening. It comes from unnamed sources in the Sanford police department. Sanford’s city manager has said he will launch an investigation into the sources and discipline them. The Sanford government is thus striving to suppress the very facts that were the basis of the decision by police to release Zimmerman. For whatever reason, the Sanford government does not want to contradict the fact-free charges against Zimmerman as a racist stalker and killer, and against their own officers for supposedly improperly declining to arrest him.
Police: Zimmerman says Trayvon decked him with one blow then began hammering his head
With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered, law-enforcement authorities told the Orlando Sentinel.
That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it 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 Trayvon approached him from behind, the two exchanged words and then Trayvon punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him.
Zimmerman told police he shot the teenager in self-defense….
Police have been reluctant to provide details about their evidence.
But after the 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. [LA replies: So it appears that the Sanford government is deliberately suppressing the information that was the basis for the police’ release of Zimmerman. The whole country has been going mad with fact-free wild statements about what Zimmerman did to Martin, and the Sanford authorities, who exclusively have been in a position to dispell those false reports, have not only declined to do so, but seek to punish any police officers who do.]
He did not challenge the accuracy of the information. [LA replies: Right. Meaning, what the unnamed police officers told the Sentinel is correct, but they weren’t supposed to say it, because it discredit the politically correct lynching of Zimmerman.]
At a Monday news conference, Trayvon’s mother, father and their lawyers called the report that their son was suspended from school because of a marijuana baggie irrelevant and needlessly hurtful.
Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, said “even in death, they are still disrespecting my son, and I feel that that’s a sin.” [LA replies: There’s the black attitude for you: blacks and their white liberal facilitators, without any facts, denounce Zimmerman as a white racist murderer. But any facts about Martin that even slightly contradict the official picture of him as an innocent child are “hurtful” (i.e. wounding to black vanity, a “dis” Trayvon and to all blacks) and should be suppressed.]
His mother, Sybrina Fulton, said, “They killed my son, and now they’re trying to kill his reputation.” …
One-minute gap
On Feb. 26, when Zimmerman first spotted Trayvon, he called police and reported a suspicious person, describing Trayvon as black, acting strangely and perhaps on drugs.
Zimmerman got out of his SUV to follow Trayvon on foot. When a dispatch employee asked Zimmerman if 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 Trayvon and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from the left rear, and they exchanged words.
Trayvon asked Zimmerman if he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cell phone, he told police. Trayvon 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 Trayvon 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 Trayvon.
Lawyers for Trayvon’s family say it was Trayvon, but police say their evidence indicates it was Zimmerman.
One witness, who has since talked to local television news reporters, told police he saw Zimmerman on the ground with Trayvon on top, pounding him -and was unequivocal that it was Zimmerman who was crying for help.
Zimmerman then shot Trayvon once in the chest at very close range, according to authorities.
When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, had a swollen lip and had bloody lacerations to the back of his head.
Paramedics gave him first aid but he said he did not need to go to the hospital. He got medical care the next day.