Florida Shooter Zimmerman Will Turn Himself In If Charged

By Vladimir Gladkov

George Zimmerman will turn himself in to authorities in the event he is charged with a crime in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, his defense attorney Craig Sonner said on Monday.

“If he’s charged, he will be arrested and he will turn himself in. However it goes, he’s not hiding from the authorities. If he is asked, he will turn himself in. There’s not going to be a manhunt or anything like that,” Sonner told Reuters in a telephone interview.”

Tensions grow over the Trayvon Martin case

Tensions continue to grow over the killing of the 17-year-old black teenager Trayvon Martin. The boy was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on February 26.

Zimmerman told the police that the teen attacked him before he fired in self-defense. Although the investigators lack enough evidence to prove this, Zimmerman has not yet been officially charged. Tests conducted by experts show that the voice heard calling for help on a 911 call just before Martin was fatally shot was not that of Zimmerman. Even this, however, does not seem to be enough for the local authorities to change their position over Zimmerman`s role in the accident. As a result of this the US society now stands on the brink of serious social and racial conflicts.

While the killing has sparked a series of protests in some US towns, with people demanding the killer to face trial, the accident has been widely discussed on the web. Many bloggers make racist comments, which is easy to explain when the authorities are covering up a white killer of a black teenager. Zimmerman himself can be accused of racist remarks. In his 911 call, during which an operator was persuading George not to chase a ‘suspicious black man’, Zimmerman can be heard saying: “Several houses were robbed in my area. Now I see a suspicious guy, he is black…These bastards always get away with everything”.

Martin was shot dead by Zimmerman as he walked from a store where he went during an interval in a basketball match he had been watching at home. The 28-year-old law student and a neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman told the 911 service that he was going to detain a ‘suspicious man’. Zimmerman was driving after the teenager for a while before he started shooting at him. When police officers arrived at the scene, Zimmerman told them that he shot Martin in self-defense after the teenager attacked him.

It is difficult to believe but the truth is that the local authorities took Zimmerman`s version seriously. They really believe that a 17-year-old teen having nothing but a cell phone and some sweets on him, could have attacked an armed man. The Daily News reported that when the police said that the killer must be detained, the authorities refused by saying there was little evidence against Zimmerman.

Although Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee had to resign temporarily amid public protests, no clarity has been brought on the tragedy, and Zimmerman remains at large.

While protesters demand Zimmerman`s arrest, some political and public organizations threaten to lynch him, offering a $10,000 award for catching the shooter. Numerous death threats forced Zimmerman to move to a new apartment.

Such a passive attitude of the authorities cannot but spark protests: the fact that a man who was involved in a murder and lied to the police remains at large is difficult to tolerate with. How this can be explained? It is worth mentioning that police officers dealing with the Zimmerman case had been previously involved in a racism scandal, when they refused to arrest a colleague who had attacked a homeless African-American. The officials were also caught in a lie: originally, the police said that Zimmerman was not arrested due to his irreproachable reputation, but according to the WFTV news agency, in 2005 Zimmerman wasarrested and charged with “resisting officer with violence”.

While no action is being taken on the Trayvon case, tensions continue to grow, making new violent clashes possible.