Trayvon Martin Killing's Youngest Witness, 13, Still Can Hear The Screams

 Austin McLendon, 13, stands at the spot where he was
the night of Feb. 26, when about 20 yards away, George
Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, in a grassy
patch behind the townhouse where McLendon lives with
his family. McLendon said he cannot shake the memory
of screams and gunfire he heard that night.

Brown said in hindsight she feels the police investigator on the case attempted to lead her son to provide information that he didn't have. The investigator, she said, would nod yes when asking if it was the man in the T-shirt, who turned out to be Zimmerman, and not the one in the hooded sweatshirt, Martin, who was screaming out for help. And while the police have said that they don't have any evidence to refute Zimmerman's claims of self-defense, the investigators had a different story when they visited her family about a week after the shooting, Brown said.

"That investigator said flat out that we don't think it was self-defense," Brown said, recalling the day the police came to interview Austin. "Several times he said, 'I have kids, and I'm going to tell you something that I don't tell many people.' He looked at me and said, 'You have to read between the lines. There's some stereotyping going on.'"

She continued: "He stood here in my family room telling me that this guy [Zimmerman] is not right and it wasn't self-defense and that they have to prove that it wasn't. He was adamant about that. I don't know if that was to make me less uncomfortable or to make us feel that he was on our side."
In recent days, other witnesses have come forward to say that the police attempted to twist their testimony to support Zimmerman's claims of self-defense or ignored them entirely, including two witnesses who joined the Martin family during a press conference on Friday.  READ MORE

Tampa Bay News About The Retreat At Twin Lakes

A memorial to Trayvon Martin, 17, is attached to a
street sign outside the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford.

 

 

George Zimmerman, 28, moved into the Retreat in the summer of 2009 with his wife, Shellie. Records show he worked at a pressure-washing company, though neighbors said they never saw a truck.

Right away, he started calling the police. The 911 operators translated his complaints into the bloodless shorthand of law enforcement.

Aug. 26, 2009: "Male driving with no headlights on."

Sept. 22, 2009: "Yellow speed bike doing wheelies."

Oct. 23, 2009: "Aggressive white and brown pit bull."

 The transcripts of Zimmerman's 911 calls during the more than two years he lived on Retreat View Circle fill 28 pages. His concerns include everything from the driver of a pickup cutting off people to a neighbor leaving his garage door open.

He kept a close watch for outsiders, but it couldn't have been easy to tell who belonged and who didn't. When the housing market crashed, many townhomes were foreclosed on and the owners evicted. Dozens of investors, unable to unload the two- and three-bedroom properties, rented them to cover their upside-down mortgages.

The developers had envisioned a stable neighborhood with home­owners planting long-term roots, but now townhouses were turning over all the time. Insiders moved out. Outsiders moved in.
By the time Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, 40 properties inside the gate were empty and more than half of the residents were renters.

Including Brandy Green, who was dating Martin's dad. And Zimmerman himself.
Trayvon Martin lived with his dad, who resides in the Miami area, and had visited his dad's girlfriend at the Retreat several times before. The kids in the neighborhood always looked forward to playing football with him. But to George Zimmerman, he was a stranger.  READ MORE

Update from 4/17 (I received it 4/9) – A map based on witness location AND description was submitted by BccList.com visitor Tchoupi Caillou…

2831 Retreat View Circle is on the Property Appraiser of Seminole County under Selma. This also is the 2nd address given by dispatcher to help police Officers locate the crime scene.
1211 Twin Trees Lane pops up when you google Jeremy in the Twin Trees or Retreat View. He seem to have a home business. Jeremy is also the name called out in the earliest 911 call. He was basically instructed to stay inside during the scuffle.  READ MORE

Update from 4/2 - A map including times from Zimmerman’s 911 call:

“Why did Trayvon run when he did around the 2:08 mark of Zimmerman’s 911 call?”
If my new map is correct, Zimmerman was still in his parked truck facing west by the cut through, watching Trayvon in his rearview mirrors, talking to 911 about how “these assholes always get away,” giving absolutely HORRIBLE directions to his location, and then Trayvon runs.
So, what made Trayvon run around the 2:08 mark? Rain? Was he sick/scared of being stalked by Zimmerman? And, by sick/scared of being stalked, I don’t mean the first time Trayvon noticed Zimmerman was when he was leaving the clubhouse’s awning at the beginning of Zimmerman’s 911 call. Trayvon wouldn’t be sick/scared of Zimmerman watching him if the only time they saw each other was from :01 – 1:30 of Zimmerman’s 911 call. I sort of make this point in my original posting but that seems like years (and a few maps) ago.  READ MORE

A view from the Crawdad hole blog

I used to make my living going over police reports and evidence. So that’s what I’m gonna do today. Here is the Initial Shooting Report provided by the Sanford Police Department. It is only a partial report made by the first two responding officers. It does not include the detective’s report or any forensics/autopsy information.
Let’s start with the basics. Sanford, Florida is an incorporated city in central Florida (near Orlando) with a population of 53,570 people. That makes it about 2/3 the size of my hometown. I am fairly familiar with how police departments work in medium sized communities. That is why I am fairly sure that Sanford does not have its own CSI department or a dedicated homicide unit. READ MORE

An early map showing the speculated routes of TM and GZ

This map shows an earlier hypothesis before the evidence dump.
The story can be read Here

Map: Overview of trip to 711

This map shows the location and a path from where Trayvon Martin was staying to the 711. 
This route uses the front gate and not the cut through shortcut near Frank Taaffe's house.
(Link will open in new window because the map is large)  CLICK HERE FOR GOOGLE MAP
From  the BCC.List.com blog