TPC Investigates Trayvon Martin Killing Police Reports & Files: Documents Point To Police Cover-Up Reaching As Far As Apex Of Town’s Police Department
Posted by David Adams on June 25th, 2012
The night that Trayvon Martin lied dead in a Sanford, Florida gated community after being shot by cop wannabe George Zimmerman, the police officers who were primary to the scene appear to have initially followed protocol based on recently released police documents in the case. Zimmerman was immediately place under arrest, a crime scene was established, and the police began interviewing potential witnesses who may have observed the shooting when it unfolded. Zimmerman has since claimed that he killed the 17-year-old Miami teen in self-defense. I don’t know how it’s done in Florida, but most self-defense cases that resulted in a homicide are normally predicated upon an individual having to use deadly force in the face of mortal threat. Cases such as this one can only prevail after the killer has demonstrated that there was no other resolve but to use lethal force in fear of serious bodily injury or death to themselves, and have such an account supported by eyewitnesses who can corroborate such a claim. By now most have already heard the 911 tapes in which Zimmerman himself admitted to following Trayvon, and the dispatcher advising him “We don’t need you to do that”. Moments later the city’s 911 system began receiving calls regarding shots fired and Trayvon Martin ended up dead. Although there have been reports of some witnesses having observed at least portion of the physical confrontation between Zimmerman and the Martin teen, none of these alleged eyewitness accounts viewed the confrontation in its entirety, and not one of them have corroborated Zimmerman’s story exactly the way he claimed it occurred. The meat of this entire case falls squarely on what cops were told by the sole surviving witness. Zimmerman claims that after having been advised by a trained 911 professional to cease following the teen, he began to return to his vehicle and Trayvon jumped out of the bushes and began attacking him. He has since been video recorded having stated that he and Trayvon had a verbal exchange (he alleges that Trayvon asked him “what’s your fucking problem, he replied “I don’t have a problem”, and Trayvon stated “well you have a problem now”, before attacking him). It doesn’t take rocket science to conclude that it’s a pretty substantial variance in the two accounts. I don’t understand why the police never probed Zimmerman about this significant discrepancy in his account of that night. I tend to believe the later of the two statements, because Trayvon’s girlfriend who was on the phone with him moments before the altercation, reportedly stated that she overheard a verbal exchange between Zimmerman and Trayvon also, and then heard the phone call abruptly end like Trayvon’s cell had fallen to the ground. Her accounts tends to depict Zimmerman as the aggressor that night. Zimmerman claimed that Trayvon began to pummel him knocking him to the ground, and began banging his head into the side-walk. Zimmerman went on to claim that he began crawling onto the grass, but crime scene photos dispute that argument. The location of Trayvon’s body in relationship to the pavement is a substantial distance. Eyewitness who saw the shooting said that the Martin teen fell straight to the ground once the shot was fired. No one, including Zimmerman has stated on record that Trayvon either wandered or staggered away before falling onto the ground. More importantly, Zimmerman told cops that he got out of his vehicle to get an address for the dispatcher, because he didn’t know where he actually was at the time of the 911 call. We all know that this account his completely untrue, because we heard the tape for ourselves when his car door alarm chimed, indicating he had left his vehicle, and we heard Zimmerman admit that he was following the teen. The Sanford Police Major Crime Investigators never probed these inconsistencies in Zimmerman’s story, but his apparent deception to police wasn’t the only thing that jumps out at you in this case. The actions by the Sanford City Police Brass (Administration) is completely disturbing to say the very least. Sanford’s police administration failed to do their jobs by allowing untimely, modified, and omitted facts in reports by police officers who were primary to a major crime scene. Chiefly, Ofc. Timothy Smith who was the primary Sanford Cop that responded to the Martin shooting, was a problematic element of the case from the gate. Smith was only a year removed from departmental investigations surrounding his alleged police misconduct in the beating of a homeless black man who was captured on video. A Sanford Police Lieutenant’s son was recorded assaulting a homeless black man in a violent drunken rage. The cops who responded to that scene (one of them Ofc. Timothy Smith) failed to do their job, by not arresting the son of a high-ranking police supervisor. Smith’s presence at the Martin crime scene should have resulted in supervisors following the process by the numbers if for no provocation other than to protect their jobs. Smith and other Sanford police were subsequently cleared of any wrong doing in the homeless man’s beating. The case was a public relations nightmare for the city, and Smith’s involvement in the Martin case has raised credibility and integrity stigmatization resulting in doubt about his honesty having spilled over into the Martin teen investigation. A review of the police report filed by Smith on the night of the Martin killing is generic. Smith only accounts for his actions upon placing Zimmerman into custody, confiscating the alleged weapon used in the killing, and only one statement of him quoting Zimmerman having admitted shooting Trayvon Martin. Smith’s official report went on describing secondary Ofc. Ricardo Ayala’s attempt to render first aid to an unconscious and unresponsive Trayvon Martin. His report was void of any other details describing his interaction with George Zimmerman, a peculiar fact rarely seen absent from a police report in a case of this magnitude. Cops are trained to document everything a potential defendant says, as it potentially may be used against them in a court of law. Smith’s initial report is void of any conversations with Zimmerman all along while Zimmerman was arrested and seated in the back of his patrol car.However, other police on the scene that night did quot comments by Zimmerman in their reports. Such notation is a standard as police practice supporting my argument how cops are trained to record such detail. Police always record such comments in an effort to establish the defendants account on record in preparation for a more thorough interview later on. Smith later submitted a supplement to his original report three days later on 3/1/12. The supplement appears to describe Zimmerman’s physical condition detailing his refusal of medical treatment at least 3 times. These details seem to underscore Zimmerman’s claims that he was in fear for his life, and supports Sanford Fire Department’s report that he only suffered minor injuries. In short I am sure most will conclude that Ofc. Timothy Smith’s reports submitted in the Trayvon Martin case are more than likely not his best effort in establishing record for a potential criminal case. Smith’s reports are indeed vague and is minimal considering that he arrived on the scene at approximately 7:17 p.m. that evening, and filed his report at 3:29 a.m. in the early morning hours the next day. Smith was on the scene for more than 8 hours and only offered a brief account for his involvement in the Martin teen killing investigation. What else was he doing? The Sanford Police Administration is equally responsible for Smith’s poor police work because they allowed it to occur. An investigation in any criminal case relies on information obtained by the primary police who began to work the scene, especially a homicide. Within all of the ten police officers who submitted a report in the Martin case, only 3 of them did so in an acceptable time frame. Trayvon Martin was killed during the evening of February 26, 2012. Officers Smith, Ayala, and Mead filed their reports during the early morning hours of the next day. The remaining police officers filed reports days later, including the working police supervisor on the scene that night, Sgt. Stacie McCoy, who submitted her report 11 days from the date Martin was killed. The delayed police reports are descriptive of the culture within their department, and demonstrates that the Martin case wasn’t taken seriously at all or the Sanford police officers involved in the case were instructed not to do their jobs. How else would you explain Sanford’s Police Brass accepting official reports related to a major crime being submitted days and weeks later? Those initial reports are crucial to investigations which could lead to possible convictions, and should have been submitted within a 24 time period at the very latest. It was Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee who offered the rationalization for Zimmerman not having been charged was due to the lack of information which disputed his self-defense claim. All the information which would have allowed the police’s administration to make sound and logical judgement on whether or not to charge Zimmerman wasn’t presented to them from the start. Police reports were coming in sporadically, and top cops including Chief Lee, never pressed the issue related to such delay in reports for an obvious major crime investigation. Moreover, the delayed police reports submissions appear to have been done so intentionally. Sanford Police allowed Trayvon Martin’s body to lay in the coroner’s office for three days, all along while Tracey Martin, Trayvon’s father had filed a missing person’s report for his son. It’s simply incredible that the police couldn’t connect the dots causing them to realize that the dead teen at the morgue was in fact the Martin kid. Exactly how many dead 17-teen-year olds had been reported missing to Sanford PD and how many dead black teens were actually at the city’s morgue during this time? These facts tend to show that cops purposefully delayed notification to the Martin family regarding their son’s killing. Why would the police do this? Some may argue that it’s just a standard practice for Sanford police to treat murdered blacks in such a fashion, but other elements of the entire case clearly trumps such conclusion. A close and detailed look at the submitted police reports in this case will show that most of the cops involved in the Martin investigation didn’t begin to submit their reports until after the Martin family learned about his death. I suspect that as the case began to gain momentum within local media, some police officers started to separate themselves from the controversy associated with the case. In other words, cops began to cover their asses. In fact, once all of the involved police personnel had submitted their reports, Major Crimes Detective Christopher Serino submitted an investigative report concluding that “there exist probable cause for issuance of a capias charging George Michael Zimmerman with manslaugter, in violation of Ch. 782.07 FS“, which confirms that the Martin homicide lead investigator wanted Zimmerman charged. Serino’s findings in his request for capias against Zimmerman is extremely revealing, primarily because it underscores Chief bill Lee’s earlier argument that no information existed to dispute Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense. The entire case hinges upon these facts and is actually where the confusion begins with Florida’s Stand Your Ground’ law. Although SYG affords citizens the right not to have to flee from a conflict (retreating is standard in most states), State Law prohibits citizens from killing someone to stop them from committing a felony. Under Florida state code such actions are deemed a violation under the law, rightfully should result in charges for Manslaughter, and Serino was completely accurate in his interpretation of Florida state law when he submitted a request for a capias against George Zimmerman. The million dollar question now becomes, who made the decision not to charge Zimmerman? A request for a capias in a major crime most certainly would have to pass Bill Lee’s desk, and I wonder if the decision not to pursue manslaughter charges against Zimmerman derived from his independent interpretation of Florida State Law or if such a decision originated from the State Attorney office assigned to the city of Sanford, Florida. Either way, the decision to bring charges against Zimmerman rested squarely on the desk of the town’s top police officials. Another aspect of the Martin investigation which hasn’t received much press, is the suspicious involvement of original State’s Attorney with a shaky record handling the case, Prosecutor Norman R. Wolfinger (Read more on Wolfinger here). Wolfinger drove over 50 miles the night Trayvon Martin was killed and showed up at the actual crime scene. Perhaps it was Wolfinger who quarterbacked the investigation from the start. There are others who believe that Zimmerman’s father, a retired State Supreme Court magistrate, may have put a call in for a favor from one of his friends in the justice system. Wolfinger’s track record and questionable actions in the Martin case has drawn suspicion from the public, as well as from law enforcement officials across the country, but the recent release of police reports and other files associated with the Trayvon Martin killing clearly points to a cover up that is as far-reaching to the very apex of the Sanford Police Department. Read reports and other documents from the Trayvon Martin homicide case here: Evidence Findings and Capias Request, Police Reports (last 5 pages of pdf file), Zimmerman’s EMS Report, and Witness Statements.
Credits
CNN
The Daily Caller
Insight Out News
The People’s Champion
I’m David Adams
The night that Trayvon Martin lied dead in a Sanford, Florida gated community after being shot by cop wannabe George Zimmerman, the police officers who were primary to the scene appear to have initially followed protocol based on recently released police documents in the case. Zimmerman was immediately place under arrest, a crime scene was established, and the police began interviewing potential witnesses who may have observed the shooting when it unfolded. Zimmerman has since claimed that he killed the 17-year-old Miami teen in self-defense. I don’t know how it’s done in Florida, but most self-defense cases that resulted in a homicide are normally predicated upon an individual having to use deadly force in the face of mortal threat. Cases such as this one can only prevail after the killer has demonstrated that there was no other resolve but to use lethal force in fear of serious bodily injury or death to themselves, and have such an account supported by eyewitnesses who can corroborate such a claim. By now most have already heard the 911 tapes in which Zimmerman himself admitted to following Trayvon, and the dispatcher advising him “We don’t need you to do that”. Moments later the city’s 911 system began receiving calls regarding shots fired and Trayvon Martin ended up dead. Although there have been reports of some witnesses having observed at least portion of the physical confrontation between Zimmerman and the Martin teen, none of these alleged eyewitness accounts viewed the confrontation in its entirety, and not one of them have corroborated Zimmerman’s story exactly the way he claimed it occurred. The meat of this entire case falls squarely on what cops were told by the sole surviving witness. Zimmerman claims that after having been advised by a trained 911 professional to cease following the teen, he began to return to his vehicle and Trayvon jumped out of the bushes and began attacking him. He has since been video recorded having stated that he and Trayvon had a verbal exchange (he alleges that Trayvon asked him “what’s your fucking problem, he replied “I don’t have a problem”, and Trayvon stated “well you have a problem now”, before attacking him). It doesn’t take rocket science to conclude that it’s a pretty substantial variance in the two accounts. I don’t understand why the police never probed Zimmerman about this significant discrepancy in his account of that night. I tend to believe the later of the two statements, because Trayvon’s girlfriend who was on the phone with him moments before the altercation, reportedly stated that she overheard a verbal exchange between Zimmerman and Trayvon also, and then heard the phone call abruptly end like Trayvon’s cell had fallen to the ground. Her accounts tends to depict Zimmerman as the aggressor that night. Zimmerman claimed that Trayvon began to pummel him knocking him to the ground, and began banging his head into the side-walk. Zimmerman went on to claim that he began crawling onto the grass, but crime scene photos dispute that argument. The location of Trayvon’s body in relationship to the pavement is a substantial distance. Eyewitness who saw the shooting said that the Martin teen fell straight to the ground once the shot was fired. No one, including Zimmerman has stated on record that Trayvon either wandered or staggered away before falling onto the ground. More importantly, Zimmerman told cops that he got out of his vehicle to get an address for the dispatcher, because he didn’t know where he actually was at the time of the 911 call. We all know that this account his completely untrue, because we heard the tape for ourselves when his car door alarm chimed, indicating he had left his vehicle, and we heard Zimmerman admit that he was following the teen. The Sanford Police Major Crime Investigators never probed these inconsistencies in Zimmerman’s story, but his apparent deception to police wasn’t the only thing that jumps out at you in this case. The actions by the Sanford City Police Brass (Administration) is completely disturbing to say the very least. Sanford’s police administration failed to do their jobs by allowing untimely, modified, and omitted facts in reports by police officers who were primary to a major crime scene. Chiefly, Ofc. Timothy Smith who was the primary Sanford Cop that responded to the Martin shooting, was a problematic element of the case from the gate. Smith was only a year removed from departmental investigations surrounding his alleged police misconduct in the beating of a homeless black man who was captured on video. A Sanford Police Lieutenant’s son was recorded assaulting a homeless black man in a violent drunken rage. The cops who responded to that scene (one of them Ofc. Timothy Smith) failed to do their job, by not arresting the son of a high-ranking police supervisor. Smith’s presence at the Martin crime scene should have resulted in supervisors following the process by the numbers if for no provocation other than to protect their jobs. Smith and other Sanford police were subsequently cleared of any wrong doing in the homeless man’s beating. The case was a public relations nightmare for the city, and Smith’s involvement in the Martin case has raised credibility and integrity stigmatization resulting in doubt about his honesty having spilled over into the Martin teen investigation. A review of the police report filed by Smith on the night of the Martin killing is generic. Smith only accounts for his actions upon placing Zimmerman into custody, confiscating the alleged weapon used in the killing, and only one statement of him quoting Zimmerman having admitted shooting Trayvon Martin. Smith’s official report went on describing secondary Ofc. Ricardo Ayala’s attempt to render first aid to an unconscious and unresponsive Trayvon Martin. His report was void of any other details describing his interaction with George Zimmerman, a peculiar fact rarely seen absent from a police report in a case of this magnitude. Cops are trained to document everything a potential defendant says, as it potentially may be used against them in a court of law. Smith’s initial report is void of any conversations with Zimmerman all along while Zimmerman was arrested and seated in the back of his patrol car.However, other police on the scene that night did quot comments by Zimmerman in their reports. Such notation is a standard as police practice supporting my argument how cops are trained to record such detail. Police always record such comments in an effort to establish the defendants account on record in preparation for a more thorough interview later on. Smith later submitted a supplement to his original report three days later on 3/1/12. The supplement appears to describe Zimmerman’s physical condition detailing his refusal of medical treatment at least 3 times. These details seem to underscore Zimmerman’s claims that he was in fear for his life, and supports Sanford Fire Department’s report that he only suffered minor injuries. In short I am sure most will conclude that Ofc. Timothy Smith’s reports submitted in the Trayvon Martin case are more than likely not his best effort in establishing record for a potential criminal case. Smith’s reports are indeed vague and is minimal considering that he arrived on the scene at approximately 7:17 p.m. that evening, and filed his report at 3:29 a.m. in the early morning hours the next day. Smith was on the scene for more than 8 hours and only offered a brief account for his involvement in the Martin teen killing investigation. What else was he doing? The Sanford Police Administration is equally responsible for Smith’s poor police work because they allowed it to occur. An investigation in any criminal case relies on information obtained by the primary police who began to work the scene, especially a homicide. Within all of the ten police officers who submitted a report in the Martin case, only 3 of them did so in an acceptable time frame. Trayvon Martin was killed during the evening of February 26, 2012. Officers Smith, Ayala, and Mead filed their reports during the early morning hours of the next day. The remaining police officers filed reports days later, including the working police supervisor on the scene that night, Sgt. Stacie McCoy, who submitted her report 11 days from the date Martin was killed. The delayed police reports are descriptive of the culture within their department, and demonstrates that the Martin case wasn’t taken seriously at all or the Sanford police officers involved in the case were instructed not to do their jobs. How else would you explain Sanford’s Police Brass accepting official reports related to a major crime being submitted days and weeks later? Those initial reports are crucial to investigations which could lead to possible convictions, and should have been submitted within a 24 time period at the very latest. It was Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee who offered the rationalization for Zimmerman not having been charged was due to the lack of information which disputed his self-defense claim. All the information which would have allowed the police’s administration to make sound and logical judgement on whether or not to charge Zimmerman wasn’t presented to them from the start. Police reports were coming in sporadically, and top cops including Chief Lee, never pressed the issue related to such delay in reports for an obvious major crime investigation. Moreover, the delayed police reports submissions appear to have been done so intentionally. Sanford Police allowed Trayvon Martin’s body to lay in the coroner’s office for three days, all along while Tracey Martin, Trayvon’s father had filed a missing person’s report for his son. It’s simply incredible that the police couldn’t connect the dots causing them to realize that the dead teen at the morgue was in fact the Martin kid. Exactly how many dead 17-teen-year olds had been reported missing to Sanford PD and how many dead black teens were actually at the city’s morgue during this time? These facts tend to show that cops purposefully delayed notification to the Martin family regarding their son’s killing. Why would the police do this? Some may argue that it’s just a standard practice for Sanford police to treat murdered blacks in such a fashion, but other elements of the entire case clearly trumps such conclusion. A close and detailed look at the submitted police reports in this case will show that most of the cops involved in the Martin investigation didn’t begin to submit their reports until after the Martin family learned about his death. I suspect that as the case began to gain momentum within local media, some police officers started to separate themselves from the controversy associated with the case. In other words, cops began to cover their asses. In fact, once all of the involved police personnel had submitted their reports, Major Crimes Detective Christopher Serino submitted an investigative report concluding that “there exist probable cause for issuance of a capias charging George Michael Zimmerman with manslaugter, in violation of Ch. 782.07 FS“, which confirms that the Martin homicide lead investigator wanted Zimmerman charged. Serino’s findings in his request for capias against Zimmerman is extremely revealing, primarily because it underscores Chief bill Lee’s earlier argument that no information existed to dispute Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense. The entire case hinges upon these facts and is actually where the confusion begins with Florida’s Stand Your Ground’ law. Although SYG affords citizens the right not to have to flee from a conflict (retreating is standard in most states), State Law prohibits citizens from killing someone to stop them from committing a felony. Under Florida state code such actions are deemed a violation under the law, rightfully should result in charges for Manslaughter, and Serino was completely accurate in his interpretation of Florida state law when he submitted a request for a capias against George Zimmerman. The million dollar question now becomes, who made the decision not to charge Zimmerman? A request for a capias in a major crime most certainly would have to pass Bill Lee’s desk, and I wonder if the decision not to pursue manslaughter charges against Zimmerman derived from his independent interpretation of Florida State Law or if such a decision originated from the State Attorney office assigned to the city of Sanford, Florida. Either way, the decision to bring charges against Zimmerman rested squarely on the desk of the town’s top police officials. Another aspect of the Martin investigation which hasn’t received much press, is the suspicious involvement of original State’s Attorney with a shaky record handling the case, Prosecutor Norman R. Wolfinger (Read more on Wolfinger here). Wolfinger drove over 50 miles the night Trayvon Martin was killed and showed up at the actual crime scene. Perhaps it was Wolfinger who quarterbacked the investigation from the start. There are others who believe that Zimmerman’s father, a retired State Supreme Court magistrate, may have put a call in for a favor from one of his friends in the justice system. Wolfinger’s track record and questionable actions in the Martin case has drawn suspicion from the public, as well as from law enforcement officials across the country, but the recent release of police reports and other files associated with the Trayvon Martin killing clearly points to a cover up that is as far-reaching to the very apex of the Sanford Police Department. Read reports and other documents from the Trayvon Martin homicide case here: Evidence Findings and Capias Request, Police Reports (last 5 pages of pdf file), Zimmerman’s EMS Report, and Witness Statements.
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The Daily Caller
Insight Out News
The People’s Champion
I’m David Adams
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