Lawyer Says Zimmerman Medical Report Leaked to Boost Case
The attorney representing Trayvon Martin’s parents said Wednesday a medical report detailing injuries sustained by the man who said he shot Trayvon was leaked to bolster his claims of self-defense.
Lawyer Benjamin Crump said he has not seen the medical report but questions who leaked the information and why.
“It was leaked for a beneficial purpose,” he said, “certainly to help George Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense.”
The medical report detailing George Zimmerman’s injuries after he shot and killed Trayvon was first reported by ABC News on Tuesday.
Zimmerman, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting Feb. 26 of Trayvon, an unarmed black 17-year-old, in a gated Sanford community where Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer.
Zimmerman, whose father is white and mother is Hispanic, said he shot Trayvon in self-defense after the teen confronted him, punched him in the face and bashed his head on the sidewalk. Police 911 recordings after Zimmerman reported a person in a hooded sweatshirt who looked suspicious indicate that Zimmerman got out of his vehicle and followed Martin for 20 seconds before the dispatcher asked, “Are you following him?” Zimmerman said he was, at which point the dispatcher told him they did not need him to do that.