Original subtitles

Bernie de la Rionda on behalf of the state of Florida

with John Guy.

Attorney Benjamin Crump

on behalf of Trayvon Martin's family.

Ms. Fulton, would you raise your right hand, please?

My job is getting some information, okay?

Okay.

Usually when I get home from work,

Trayvon is there at the door.

Do you want to take just a couple minutes?

Might be a good time for a few. Should we do that?

Yeah, why don't we just take a few minutes?

Off work, 11:23 a.m.

Mr. Martin, would you raise your right hand, please?

I placed a call trying to file

a missing-persons report.

How long has he been missing for?

Since last night.

And what's his name?

Trayvon Martin. - Trayvon Martin.

Trayvon Martin of Miami...

High-school junior dreamed of becoming a pilot.

Trayvon Martin, a Miami teenager,

was coming from the store, from the 7-Eleven...

Did Trayvon Martin ask if you wanted anything

before he left for the store? - Yes.

And what was that? Skittles

We are Trayvon! We are Trayvon!

Sanford Police Department.

Line's being recorded. This is Sean.

Hey, we've had some break-ins in my neighborhood,

and there's a real suspicious guy.

26-year-old George Zimmerman.

Zimmerman was acting in his role

as a neighborhood watch member.

Okay, and this guy, is he White,

black or Hispanic? - He looks black.

Did you see what he was wearing?

A dark hoodie.

Just because someone wears a hoodie

does not make them a hoodlum.

May God bless Trayvon Martin.

Voices from all over America speaking out.

Florida's stand-your-ground law...

As members of the NRA, we stand our ground.

The law gives people the right and kill 17...

Our family has been threatened,

and I refuse to give you my address.

White power! White power!

You're aware that you may be subject to contempt

for refusing to answer questions?

Yes, and I'm not giving my address.

Well, we'll see what we can do.

These assholes, they always get away.

Residents heard loud yelling and called 911

for the Sanford Police.

911, do you need police, fire, or medical?

Maybe both, I'm not sure.

There's just someone screaming outside.

That he went home that day, and my son did not.

We came for permanent justice.

Our son was not committing any crime,

and our son is your son.

There's someone screaming outside.

All right, what is--

Black lives matter! Black lives matter!

The American Dream...

is dead.

We used to call him Crazy Legs.

He wanted to do everything.

He was like that glow.

I just remember Trayvon being so affectionate.

You felt like everybody was his friend.

When you watch your child grow up

and you notice the little whiskers on his chin,

as a father,

I could see myself in him.

The first thing that come out of my mouth

every morning is my son's name.

Although I didn't ask to be here...

I'm here now.

I have my moments

where, you know, I want to get off in a corner

or in a closet, dark corner, and just crawl up, ball up,

and just cry.

But at the end of the day, I got to toughen up.

You got to tough it out.

The life I used to have is absolutely gone.

They say that time heals all wounds.

It does not.

Had the tragedy not been so public,

I probably would've taken more time to grieve.

But I wasn't given that type of privilege.

It was just a regular Monday.

I remember getting in. I remember having coffee.

I remember sitting at my desk

when I received the initial phone call from Tracy.

And he said that Trayvon didn't come home.

Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

We knew where he was at all times.

It wasn't a day that went by

that we didn't know where Trayvon was.

He was 17 years old,

transforming from a boy to a young man.

There were more showers.

Now you want to put on cologne.

And now I don't have to take you to get a haircut.

I have $10, he can go get two Whoppers.

I'm like, "But there's only one you.

Why you need two?"

Whatever it took for him to get the money

to buy those sneakers.

Trayvon loved football.

Football was a way for them to connect.

After work, my dad would still be in his work uniform

coaching my brother on the football field.

When my parents got divorced, nothing changed.

Even though we're divorced,

you can't divorce the family.

Back, back, back, back!

I wanted my children to do everything.

Trayvon was interested in aviation.

He wanted to learn how to fly.

He'd ask me about traveling to different places.

You know, what it's like to go to Japan,

what it's like to go to Africa.

This was more than an interest to him.

You could tell this was like his passion.

All the way up until his sophomore year,

you didn't have to ask him did he do his homework.

But then he started doing things that teenagers do.

That's just the nature of the beast.

Trayvon had an incident at the school

where he had a baggie,

which they said had marijuana residue in it.

They put him on a two-week suspension.

And I'm not sure whose decision that was.

I just think it could've been done a better way.

It's so drastic.

I mean, if he's not in school for ten days,

then what is he gonna do?

The first week, I had to go to work.

So my mom found little odd jobs for him to do.

He said, "I don't know, Grandma.

"I mean, I'm just not making the right decisions."

And I said, "Well, you know

we're not giving up on you, right?"

He say, "I know."

And that was the last conversation we had.

That's when Tracy decided,

"Well, next week he'll come with me,

and I can get him straight."

I wanted him to get away from the distractions.

I was originally scheduled to visit my girlfriend

that weekend in Central Florida.

I thought it'd be a good idea for Trayvon just to get away.

My girlfriend lived in Sanford.

I had moved to Sanford from Orlando.

It was just a nice place where I could raise my son.

I moved to The Retreat.

It was a quiet neighborhood.

It was gated.

It wasn't that friendly.

Everybody pretty much kept to themselves.

That night, me and Brandy went to a function.

We got home, and the first thing that I did

was to look for Trayvon, and he wasn't in the house.

And so I asked Brandy's son.

He said last he remembered Trayvon had went

to the 7-Eleven right down the street.

Yeah, a dark hoodie.

Late teens, okay.

All right, sir, what is your name?

George.

All right, George, what's your last name?

Zimmerman.

All right, George, we do have them on the way.

Do you want to meet with the officers

when they get out there?

Yeah, that's fine. - Okay.

Yeah, that's no problem. - Thanks.

You're welcome.

It just hurts really bad.

Whatever happened that night,

the only time they cannot account for

was 71 seconds.

71 seconds,

and it changed America.

The Retreat at Twin Lakes...

I don't think I'd ever been there in my career before.

I heard a suspicious-person call go out.

And before I could actually get in my car,

shots had been fired.

So I went down there.

I saw a body laying in the grass.

I rolled this man over and...

saw this--just a kid.

I did CPR, but there was nothing there.

Now I've got the shooter, and I've got the gun.

It seemed like an arrest was going to be imminent.

At the time, I just didn't understand the complexities

that were gonna be involved.

Persons in the room with George Zimmerman.

Correct? - Yes, sir.

George Zimmerman claimed self-defense.

This young man can't speak about what had occurred.

And so we needed to get probable cause

for the arrest of Mr. Zimmerman.

And that's what the issue at hand was.

Yes, sir.

I came to work.

I was showed a picture of John Doe--

a young black kid, laying on the ground.

The mission was to find out who the kid was,

identify him,

contact whoever we needed to contact

to let them know that he was deceased.

I received a missing-juvenile call

in The Retreat, the same area that the incident happened.

And I'm reading the description of the male

and then the caller's name and where it's at.

What was your son last seen wearing?

You know, I put two and two together.

Okay.

A detail officer pulled up

in an unmarked vehicle.

He asked me to sit down.

He told me there had been an altercation.

Tracy automatically began saying...

"Don't tell me it was my boy."

He just repeated several times.

"Don't tell me it was my boy."

He slid a crime scene photo to me

and asked, was that my son.

I just hear a scream...

a scream that you just don't ever want to hear in your life.

I see the picture on the table

of Tray laying down.

I have kids. I have boys.

And when I send my kids somewhere with anybody,

I expect them to keep them safe.

And I didn't do that for Trayvon.

I didn't do it.

I didn't do it.

I can remember going up there in the room.

I didn't get a chance to hug him before he died,

and so there was just the smell of the fabric softener

in the clothes that he had.

I can remember getting on my knees just holding the bag.

And, um...

You can't really explain the feeling, man,

unless you actually been there.

It was a thousand things racing through my head.

"Was the individual arrested?"

"No, he hadn't been arrested."

"Why haven't he been arrested?"

I wasn't getting any answers.

And there was a runaround.

Detective Chris Serino said

they were gonna do a walk-through of the incident.

And while they were doing the walk-through

with the person who had killed Trayvon,

he basically asked me not to come outside the residence.

I says, "This is crazy."

And when I got to right about here,

he yelled from behind me to the side of me.

He said, "Yo, you got a problem?"

And I turned around, and I said,

"No, I don't have a problem, man."

And he said, "You got a problem now."

And he punched me in the face.

I tried to sit up, and that's when he grabbed me by the head

and tried to slam my head down.

I kept yelling, "Help!"

He said, "Shut the f#k up."

And, uh, then I tried squirming.

That's when my jacket moved up,

and I had my firearm on my right-side hip.

And he reached for it.

Like, I felt his arm going down to my side.

And I grabbed it, and I just grabbed my firearm,

and I shot him... one time.

Okay.

When I walked up to Investigator Serino,

he was like, "George Zimmerman said

that he was in fear of his life."

People in f--I could be in fear of my life,

and I'm a police officer, and I carry a gun,

but I just can't shoot.

I really don't know what was going on, and...

there was a lot of rage built up in me.

And I wasn't at the point where I was ready

to turn the other cheek.

I was on the verge of going to tear the city of Sanford up.

That's just where I was at.

I had some long thoughts about it.

I had to get some redemption

for what had happened to Trayvon.

But I also knew that there was a right way to do it.

I needed someone to help us out.

Tracy Martin gets on the phone.

It's a...

a sound of, like...

broken-heartedness.

"Mr. Crump, they said they were not gonna arrest

the killer of my son."

For black Floridians,

Ben Crump is seen as the guy.

He's the Johnny Cochran of Florida civil rights law.

He's very good at forcing a public conversation

about a case that's being ignored.

It's becoming exceedingly clear

that this is a cover-up.

This is not a justice issue

just for African-Americans.

This is a justice issue for all Americans.

You better make it as public as possible,

or they're just gonna sweep it under the rug.

I said, "Tracy, we'll take your case.

"We're gonna fight like hell for you,

"because this kid walking home from a 7-Eleven

was profiled, pursued, and shot in the heart."

Trayvon Martin never, ever

should've been killed like this.

The car ride over to the funeral home,

everybody was just stoic.

I prayed a lot.

And I had to ask for guidance.

My life changed forever.

A piece of me died

I never understood,

and I can't say I understand now,

why it happened.

How did he die? Why is he dead?

I couldn't answer their questions,

and I couldn't answer nothing else.

I remember assembling the team.

I had Attorney Parks.

We had been through these battles before.

I had Jasmine Rand,

this young, incredible civil rights lawyer.

I had Natalie Jackson.

She had a law firm of black women.

And she was from Sanford.

One of the things that we learned

about George Zimmerman in the course of investigation

is that he called the non-emergency line

so many times, reporting what he believed

were suspicious people in the neighborhood.

The Retreat was a gated neighborhood.

And many of the people who lived in this neighborhood,

they bought at the top of the market.

Then you had the market crash.

Financial assets related to home mortgages

have lost value during the housing decline.

Florida ranks third in the nation

in the number of home foreclosures.

Thousands of homes on the market,

house after house, street after street.

You had investors come and buy up foreclosures.

And you had an influx of renters.

Many of the renters were Section 8 people--

people who had previously lived

in Sanford housing projects.

That prompted the people who had paid

all this money for their houses

to think, "Our neighborhood is going down."

So they started a neighborhood watch.

George Zimmerman, who had an interest in policing

and wanted to be a police officer,

he volunteered to be the neighborhood watch captain.

But the story that we got was the neighborhood watch

was really the watch of the black people

in the neighborhood.

Sanford Police. This line's being recorded.

Sharon speaking.

What's going on there, George?

Sanford Police Department.

Hey, we've had some break-ins in my neighborhood.

This was not an accident.

This was racial profiling.

But all we got is Trayvon Martin's killer

to listen to.

The issue is that George Zimmerman

claimed self-defense.

Florida had a law that came in around 2005

under Jeb Bush that added a new way

of asserting self-defense.

And it was called "stand-your-ground."

Stand-your-ground removes the obligation

to retreat before responding with lethal force.

Our laws used to be based

on the English common law called the "castle doctrine."

If I'm in my castle and you come in

and I perceive you as a threat, I can use deadly force.

The stand-your-ground law changed the castle doctrine

to make everywhere your castle.

Jeb Bush signed the stand-your-ground law

with an NRA lobbyist at his side.

Now the law is on the side of law-abiding people and victims,

rather than on the side of criminals.

Marion Hammer is the long-time NRA queen

of the state of Florida.

She's under 5 feet tall. She has a pageboy haircut.

She still carries a handgun in her purse.

For a long time, it was a laser-guided pistol.

Marion Hammer is one of the most influential

gun lobbyists in history.

In 2005,

she changed self-defense laws in this country

to help the industry sell more guns.

Go ahead. Write about our paranoia.

But there is no greater freedom

than the right to protect our families

with all the rifles, shotguns, and handguns we want.

Not only do we want more guns sold,

now we want to take it a step further.

You should be able to use it.

The NRA wanted to protect those shooters.

But one of the consequences of this law

was to make it easier to get away with murder.

Prosecutors who oppose these laws

say that now police officers, rather than lawyers,

are deciding whether someone is charged with a crime.

The NRA has put its thumb on the scale of justice

across the country.

This is gonna have to involve the death of a child

before the public is gonna realize it's not reasonable.

This law had the effect of exonerating

people like George Zimmerman

who said that they were in fear.

Mr. Zimmerman was subjected

to a truth-verification instrument.

We use a voice-stress analysis,

which is pretty much self-explanatory.

We went through that process.

It was part of our investigation.

George, pleasure to meet you, sir.

Thank you. You as well.

Hopefully I never see you again.

Hopefully you won't.

The police accepted his version like the Gospel.

Can you imagine if Trayvon was a white kid

and a Neighborhood Watch volunteer

shot him in the heart

and got to go home and sleep in his bed?

How many heads would roll over that?

For Trayvon Martin's case having any chance

to make it into the court of law,

I first had to win the court of public opinion.

For Ben Crump, race became a focal point.

Why is a young black teenager looked at as suspicious?

I think that that element of the story

really continued to grow.

Ben Crump said, "The elephant in the room

"is the fact that this was

"a White Neighborhood Watch captain

and a young black man."

And I quoted him on that.

The story started blowing up.

It got, like, over 12,000 comments.

People were outraged, and they wanted to know more.

The attorneys are demanding that Zimmerman

be arrested and charged with Trayvon Martin's murder.

At that particular time,

I didn't know the power of the media.

My son left Sanford, Florida in a body bag,

while George Zimmerman went home

to go to sleep in his own bed.

The story really began to generate energy,

pushing it onto the national horizon.

The parents of a teenager who was shot and killed

near Orlando last month--

they're outraged that no one has been arrested

in a case that has serious racial overtones.

CBS flew a crew in.

So we met them, and they did a walk-through.

Yeah, it must be a little odd to be here, huh?

Yes.

When Tray was only nine,

he pulled his father from a burning kitchen.

My son saved my life.

And for me not to be able to save his life,

it's just, uh...

It's--it's hard.

We're here to demand that the state attorney

charge this homeowner's association loose cannon

with murder.

Attorney Crump told us,

"This is gonna be a tough process.

It's gonna be a long process."

Realistically,

just hearing a father's cry wasn't gonna do it.

I remember just not wanting

to get up in the morning...

not wanting to comb my hair or brush my teeth or shower

or anything.

Tracy called me and said that I needed to come to Sanford.

And I said, "I'm never coming there."

She was kind of, like... getting withdrawn.

You had to push her to get her to keep going.

Either you choose to grieve,

or you choose to fight.

But you got to choose one or the other,

because if you choose to grieve,

it's over.

Nothing happens to the killer of your child.

That's a hard pill to swallow.

I'm like...

"I'll be there."

If I had my choice, I probably would not talk,

but I don't want this to be swept under the rug.

I want people to be aware of what's going on.

Oh.

As a mother,

my heart is broken.

My heart hurts.

I don't understand.

George Zimmerman had a 9-millimeter gun.

Trayvon Martin had a bag of Skittles.

George Zimmerman is a college student

majoring in criminal justice.

We couldn't reach him or find any trace of him online.

On "CBS This Morning, Police Chief Bill Lee

says Zimmerman shot in self-defense.

Zimmerman admitted shooting him.

Correct.

He was armed, and the victim was not armed.

That's correct.

But no arrest.

No arrest.

They kept saying that they're not going to arrest

because of this stand-your-ground,

and I think that's the first time I had ever heard

of stand-your-ground.

In 2005, George Zimmerman was arrested

for battery on a law enforcement officer

and resisting arrest with violence.

However, it appears his history with the law

did not impact Chief Lee's decision to make an arrest.

I just answered that question,

that we take everything into consideration.

Trayvon Martin's family wants answers, justice,

and the 911 calls from that tragic evening.

Six neighbors dialed 911 to report a fight

and then a gunshot.

Sitting on the couch, about to watch the Oscars,

you know...

And, uh, boom.

On one of the 911 calls, there is evidence,

you can hear in the background, of a struggle and a gunshot.

But Chief Bill Lee

says those 911 calls are part of an active investigation

and will not be released.

We had to get these tapes out to America.

I understood how to navigate the media,

to make them give a damn about a black life.

His ability to bridge the world

between white mainstream media

and marginalized communities, specifically African-Americans,

is unparalleled.

In 2006, Ben Crump became involved in a case

of a 14-year-old boy

who died at a boot camp after being beaten by guards.

Martin Lee Anderson collapses.

They pick him up, kick him, punch him.

And when he's not responding,

they start stuffing ammonia tablets inside his nose.

They say he died a couple hours later,

but you could tell he's already dead then.

Martin Lee Anderson's case became a test run

in how to handle these types of cases.

I filed a lawsuit

demanding the video be released.

Police released a video of the incident.

That's what the family had been demanding the whole time.

The most important thing, civil rights-wise,

was that Ben Crump got the boot camps in Florida shut down.

There were so many things

about Martin Lee Anderson that prepared me

for Trayvon Martin's case.

I kept telling everybody on my team,

"Let the press know, we gonna get this tape."

We'd filed our Freedom of Information requests.

I called the lawyer for the city of Sanford.

And he said, "We're not releasing the tapes,

"and we're not gonna continue this conversation.

"Chief Lee is gonna make a statement to the press.

You'll hear it when everybody else hears it."

Mr. Zimmerman has made the statement of self-defense.

Until we can establish probable cause

to dispute that,

we don't have the grounds to arrest him.

Right.

That's the perception.

Outraged residents have asked

the Sanford Police Department to show accountability.

This is not a justified shooting.

A man gets out of his car, packing a gun,

detains a black man, and gets in an argument

and shoots him to death.

How can you justify that shooting?

People felt that we weren't doing

what we should've been doing by making an arrest.

As a police officer in the police department,

we have to open the gates up and look at every angle,

not just from Mr. Martin's angel,

also Mr. Zimmerman's angle,

'cause we're obligated by law to do that--

have an open mind,

and that's what we're gonna do in this case.

But what has happened to Mr. Zimmerman right now?

At this point, nothing.

Crump was furious.

Why is Bill Lee going out to hold a press conference

to announce to the world that he's not going to arrest

the person that shot and killed Trayvon Martin?

Crump was saying, "He's not sending a message

"just to Trayvon Martin's parents,

"he's sending a message to Sanford.

"He's sending a message to our children saying,

'Your lives don't matter.'"

I called Reverend Al Sharpton.

When Ben Crump called about Trayvon,

I said, "I'm going to use my show

to drive this home."

Joining me now from Tallahassee, Florida,

Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump.

That 911 tape would tell us

why he thought Trayvon Martin was suspicious.

The tapes need to be released.

All sides need to see what happened here.

We gonna make them care about Trayvon.

All America is gonna care about Trayvon.

After the Trayvon incident happened,

it was a tough, tough moment in time.

You know, there were rumblings of,

"Why is the city not being transparent?"

The conspiracy theories, the PR nightmare.

That was my 3:00 a.m. wake-up call every night.

They need to release the tapes.

And I'm--I'm gonna be coming to Florida

to see you and the family.

I didn't want to wait for a court case,

so I said, "A decision's gonna be made."

It was Mayor Triplett's decision

to release the 911 tapes.

I quickly called Tracy and Sybrina

I said, "You all got to get here,

"because out of respect,

"they want you all to hear them first,

and then they're releasing them to the world."

We went upstairs to the mayor's office.

The family went in. Ben Crump went in.

The mayor was sitting behind us.

They hit play, and they just ran through the calls.

And then it went to all the other 911 calls

where you could hear the screams.

Would that have been the first time you heard it?

Yes.

I recognize the voice that's on there.

What voice was that?

It was Trayvon's voice.

What did you hear him say?

I heard him...

say "help."

Help!

So you think he's yelling "help"?

Yes.

All right, what is your--

There was a gunshot.

When you hear that pop,

Sybrina screamed...

and ran out the door.

And I left the office. That was enough for me.

I think I kind of took control of the cursor

and kept clicking.

There's someone screaming.

I just heard a gunshot.

I see the person right now.

I see him, like, walking.

I'm pretty sure the guy is dead out here.

Holy shit.

He stared at the computer by himself,

replaying that tape

with a tear running down his face.

I listened to it maybe 20, 25 times.

I know my son's voice, you know.

I know that that was him.

We walked outside.

CDs were handed out to all members of the media.

It was already big, but it just exploded.

There's new information

coming out of Orlando.

That was the game changer...

after those 911 tapes were released.

People were outraged, and they wanted to know more.

Suddenly everybody knew who Trayvon Martin was.

Trayvon. Trayvon Martin.

It was like an explosion.

But there are thousands across the country

clamoring for justice.

And the people wouldn't stop.

Tens of thousands of people will be rallying today.

It took my son being shot down to make me stand up.

This is not about a black-and-white thing.

This is about a right-and-wrong thing.

I am Trayvon! I am Trayvon!

This woke up a nation.

I'm angry!

Trayvon became the face of our community.

We had to go to war for him.

Then Barack Obama says...

You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.

It just immediately polarized the country.

Thousands across the country

clamoring for justice.

They're in the streets.

The President is weighing in...

We will make America great again.

We opened up Pandora's box...

and I had no idea what was gonna happen.