Trayvon Martin: Does newly released police video undermine George Zimmerman's case?

Footage captured shortly after Trayvon Martin's death raises new doubts about the shooter's claim that he fired in self defense

In a screen shot of police surveillance footage, George Zimmerman appears largely blood and scratch free, despite his claim of a violent tussle.
(Image credit: Screen shot, ABC News)

A newly released police video taken the night Trayvon Martin was killed shows little evidence of blood on George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who says he shot the 17-year-old Martin in self defense. (See the video below.) The clip — obtained by ABC News — was taken by a surveillance camera as Zimmerman arrived for questioning at the Sanford, Fla., police station last month. Zimmerman, who is half-Latino, told police that Martin, who was black, punched him and slammed his head against the ground, leaving him cut and bleeding. Does this new footage make Zimmerman's version of the story harder to believe?

So much for Zimmerman's claim of self defense: The disconnect between Zimmerman's story "and the footage screams for an explanation," says Jesse Singal at The Daily Beast. The police say they didn't arrest Zimmerman because he had a bloody nose and a cut on the back of his head, apparently backing up the claim that he fired because Martin was beating him up. But now, judging from an admittedly blurry surveillance video, it looks like Zimmerman was unscathed. If that's true, Zimmerman's many media defenders are guilty of "an absolutely catastrophic failure" that offers a "devastating example" of the "internet's power to decide 'the facts' long before anyone has a clue what they are."

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