One thing is clear: To Zimmerman, it was not an isolated incident. It was the culmination of mounting concern and frustration about crime in the subdivision where he was neighborhood watch captain. Prosecutors say the unarmed 17-year-old was an innocent victim of profiling. Zimmerman, charged with second-degree murder, says he fired during a struggle for his life. In a video re-enactment for Sanford police the day after the shooting, Zimmerman explained why he found Trayvon suspicious. Trayvon was in the yard of a neighborhood watch buddy whose town house had recently been burglarized. The teen was in the grass, not on the sidewalk, Zimmerman told officers. “He was just leisurely looking at the house,” Zimmerman said. “That’s what threw me off. It’s raining. I didn’t understand why somebody would be just stopping in the rain.”
For the first time last week, evidence emerged on how Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, in his own words, explained to police what he said was going through his mind after he spotted Trayvon Martin in his neighborhood Feb. 26, reports the Orlando Sentinel. His defense team released recorded interviews in which police questioned Zimmerman in the days after the shooting, before the controversial case drew any substantial media attention or public outcry, and before Zimmerman had a lawyer.