Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, parents of the late 17 year old Trayvon Martin who was shot dead last year by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, have spoken out on CBS and CNN about Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict that was passed down, releasing the 29 year old man of second degree murder and manslaughter allegations.
Trayvon Martin died last year on February 26 after an altercation with the neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman occurred, where Zimmerman claimed to have shot Martin dead in an act of self defense.
The Zimmerman trial sparked a nation-wide uproar on racial profiling in the United States when a not-guilty verdict was announced on Saturday night; Twitter immediately became engulfed with out pours of #justicefortrayvon, #iamtrayvonmartin; hoods became a symbol for the death of Martin; Spike Lee, Michael K Williams, Lena Dunham, Rhianna and Lebron James all lamented the verdict; protests heated up in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City; Australian group Destroy The Joint pointed out a case with a jarringly illogical verdict in comparison to Zimmerman’s, and Beyonce dedicated a song at her Nashville performance to Trayvon Martin, asking for a moment of silence in tribute to the 17 year old.
Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton were not present when George Zimmerman’s verdict was announced, but have revealed today in interviews with CBS and NBC that they “literally broke down” when they heard the news.
In their interview with CBS, Martin’s mother Sybrinya Fulton admitted that she was “shocked” and “stunned” upon hearing the verdict and said “I thought surely that he [Zimmerman] would be found guilty of second degree murder, manslaughter at the least. But I just knew that they would see that this was a teenager just trying to get home. This was no burglar. This was somebody’s son that was trying to get home.” Also present at the interview was Martin and Fulton’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, who said a civil lawsuit might be a possibility for his clients, saying, “We’ll look at all legal options. Right now, we’ll ask the Department of Justice to answer … ‘Can a private citizen with a gun profile and follow our children home?‘” He added, “We need to know because we’ve got to know what to tell our children.”
Fulton also called on President Obama to investigate the case further, saying that the message Zimmerman’s verdict has spread is “terrible for young people” and would promote a confusing discourse about staying safe: “Trayvon was walking too slow. So should they be walking too fast? I don’t think teenagers know exactly what to do now.”
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Title image by Frederic J Brown for Getty Images
