Trayvon Martin's DNA not found on George Zimmerman's gun, forensic tests say

No evidence Trayvon Martin's killer is racist: FBI interviews
July 12, 2012|Kevin Gray and Barbara Liston | Reuters


MIAMI/ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - FBI interviews with dozens of friends, coworkers and neighbors of George Zimmerman found no evidence that the accused murderer of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was a racist, according to new documents released on Thursday.

The reports from the FBI were among a new collection of evidence, including crime scene photos, bank surveillance videos and other documents, that were released by Florida's state attorney's office in the racially charged case.

Zimmerman, a 28-year-old who is white and Hispanic, is charged with second-degree murder in the February 26 shooting death of Martin, a 17-year-old black teen.

A neighborhood watch volunteer, Zimmerman claims he killed Martin in self defense after the unarmed youth attacked him and slammed his head into the sidewalk during a confrontation in a gated community in the central Florida city of Sanford.

He is currently living in an undisclosed safe house after being released on $1 million bail last week.

FBI agents investigating whether race was a factor in the shooting spoke with Sanford police officers, Zimmerman's bosses and colleagues, friends, neighbors and others to determine if he had ever shown any racial prejudice.

In one interview detailed in the evidence, Sanford Police Detective Christopher Serino, the lead investigator in the Martin case, told the FBI he did not believe Zimmerman's shooting of Martin was motivated by race.

"Serino believed that Zimmerman's actions were not based on Martin's skin color (but) rather based on his attire," according to a report.