Zimmerman tells Hannity: 'No regrets' over his actions in Trayvon Martin shooting
theGRIO REPORT - The neighborhood watch volunteer who shot a Miami teenager to death in February, triggering national protests, says he has no regrets over his actions...
Zimmerman also said that after discharging his gun, he didn’t think he’d hit Martin, and didn’t know he was dead until “an hour later,” when he was taken to the police station for questioning. However, a witness, who was the first on the scene to talk to Zimmerman, just before the first police officer arrived, told investigators Zimmerman told him he had “just shot someone,” and asked him to call his wife.
“After the shooting did you — and you saw that he was laying there, and obviously injured, there was a moment when you realized he was shot?” Hannity asked.
“Like I said,” Zimmerman responded, “he sat up and he said something to the effect of ‘you got it’ or ‘you got me.’ I assumed he meant, ‘OK, you got the gun, I didn’t get it. I’m not going to fight anymore.’ At which point I got out from under him.”
Several witnesses questioned by police expressed confusion about which person they saw on top during the fight between Martin and Zimmerman. At least one witness told state attorney’s investigators she believed the “larger man” who walked away after the gunshot was on top. That question is considered crucial to the outcome of the case.
Hannity asked if Zimmerman regretted getting out of his car, following Martin or carrying a gun that night. Zimmerman replied, “No,” adding that he would not have done anything differently.
“I feel that it’s all God’s plan and I shouldn’t question it,” he said.
That answer drew a sharp response from Martin’s family, who issued a statement through their attorneys saying: “George Zimmerman said that he does not regret getting out of his vehicle, he does not regret following Trayvon, in fact he does not regret anything he did that night. He wouldn’t do anything different and he concluded it was God’s plan.”
“We must worship a different God,” Martin’s father, Tracy Martin said. “Because there is no way that MY God would have wanted G. Zimmerman to KILL my teenage son.”
Asked what he would tell Martin’s parents, Zimmerman said, “I’m sorry that they buried their child,” adding, “I can’t imagine what it must feel like. I pray for them daily.”
O’Mara would not permit Zimmerman to answer questions about the allegations that Zimmerman and his wife hid money raised through his website from the court prior to his April 20 bond hearing. Zimmerman did answer a question about Witness 9, a younger cousin who accused his family of “disliking black people” and who accused Zimmerman of molesting her from age 6 to 16. Zimmerman said the FBI “cleared him” of any accusations of racial bias, and called it “ironic” that the “only person anyone could find” accusing him of racial bias “also accuses me of being deviant.” A federal probe of the shooting remains open, pending the outcome of the state criminal case.
Responding to the sexual abuse allegations, O’Mara told Hannity Zimmerman’s legal team was unlikely to take the time and resources to respond to the allegations, and said he didn’t expect them to be an issue at trial.
Asked how he would respond to questions of whether racial profiling had anything to do with his confrontation with Martin, Zimmerman said: “I’m not a racist and I’m not a murderer.”
Toward the end of the interview, Zimmerman said he thought the media had covered the case unfairly, and had “ignored anything positive,” and said he felt he is owed an apology by director Spike Lee, who tweeted an address he thought was Zimmerman’s (Lee later apologized and reached a settlement with the homeowner whose address mistakenly wound up online). “If I did something wrong, I would apologize,” Zimmerman said.
Caryn Freeman contributed to this report. Follow Caryn on Twitter at @CarynFreemanDC and Joy Reid at @thereidreport
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