Thread: Unarmed black teenager was shot by neighbourhood watch volunteer

Originally Posted by robuzo

I'm not really sure that the primary motivating factor in Zimmerman's stalking, confrontation and shooting of Martin was racism, but it's pretty clear that it is the motivation behind the rather desperate and pathetic attempts to justify the young man's murder.

I don't see anyone trying to "justify" the murder. I see some people attempting to examine the various possibilities in this story instead of just convicting the shooter without bothering with the inconvenience of a proper investigation, charges, and a trial. Forming a lynch mob.....simply because the victim was black and the accused is white....(well at least part white)

The media has even gone to the extent of publishing the most innocent looking version of the victim they could possibly come up with, and at the same time a picture of Zimmerman that makes him look like a hardened criminal's mug shot.
(Now why would they do that I wonder....)

We don't really know what happened exactly....there are conflicting versions of the story, and as time goes on it is starting to appear that Zimmerman may be getting a bad rap from the media so far. Trial by news media and internet seems to be the new norm.

It hardly seems likely that he just decided to go out and shoot himself a black teenager for no particular reason...especially right after placing himself at the scene and knowing that his actions would bring half the country down on his head.
(which is exactly what has happened)

We have now reached a state of affairs apparently, where anyone willing to offer any words of doubt that this may not be the open and shut case it first appeared to be....must be a rabid racist. I wonder if the kid had been a blond haired, blue eyed son of a Baptist minister.....would this story have gone further than the local radio station...?

I wonder if the kid had been a blond haired, blue eyed son of a Baptist minister.....would this story have gone further than the local radio station...?

Guaranteed, mate. And they'd be asking if the shooter was an illegal alien. Fox would be wanking themselves silly.

CNN said Martin was caught with womens jewelry in his school bag, and burglary tool.

Here is a great picture showing the disception, trying to portray Martin as angelic pre teen and Zimmerman as homicidal maniac when reality is the opposite.

This article sums up everything real nice.

According to the police report of his fatal shooting on the night of February 26, Trayvon Martin stood exactly six feet tall. In death, he has become a hundred times larger.
I believe that’s because crass opportunists are using his corpse as a political Macy’s Parade balloon.
I could be wrong, you know. Unlike a lot of mouths spouting off about the events leading to Trayvon’s death at the hands of George Zimmerman on that rainy Sunday night in the seedy little gator-hunting town of Sanford, FL, I don’t claim to know what happened. That’s because I wasn’t there. More importantly, I don’t claim to know WHY it happened. That’s because I wasn’t inside the killer’s mind.
Sorry if that may strike you as an impudently objective approach. I realize that many people find even the feeblest attempt at non-partisan fairness to be off-putting at the very least. These days, any public display of open-mindedness makes a lot of people dizzy and has been known to induce agita in readers with sensitive metabolisms.
Although modern journalism suffers no shortage of liars, most of the false impressions it creates are more due to a careful omission of facts. And in the Trayvon Martin case, I’ve seen a whole lotta cherry-pickin’ goin’ on. Due to the way the saga is being framed, as well as the fact that it’s swollen into the top news story in America, a rancid little tug in the pit of my stomach tells me this could all get a lot more dangerous, and quickly.
The flames are being fanned by paid scribes and well-compensated activists who’ve been salivating for a good old-fashioned white-on-black hate crime, even though this isn’t technically one of those.
“Trayvon Martin stood exactly six feet tall. In death, he has become a hundred times larger.”
But the torches are being carried by those who are acting like they know exactly what happened—even though, like me, they weren’t there, either. They are gathering in mobs, donning hoods, and demanding blood vengeance just like people gathered in mobs, donned hoods, and demanded blood vengeance a hundred years ago. And just like the mobs from a hundred years ago, they seem to have the sympathy of the media and the president on their side.
Maybe that sounds a little hyperbolic. Well, then, let’s go hyperbowling:
“White boys who wear hoodies and eat Skittles don’t routinely get shot to death,” hyperbolized a black writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Black boys do.” (Martin was returning to his father’s house with an iced tea and some Skittles when he was killed. To my knowledge, he is the only black male ever to be killed while simultaneously wearing a hoodie and carrying Skittles on his person.)

“It appears that Trayvon Martin was stalked and murdered…the nation must ensure that this pattern and practice of people attacking and killing black men with impunity is ended,” says NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous, who, if anything, seems jealous that his skin isn’t darker.
Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, reminded us all that “the murder of innocent black men in the American South is nothing new. Fifty-seven years ago, the White murderers of 14-year-old Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta were acquitted of the crime in a clear case of racial injustice.”
“I am tired of burying young black boys,” Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), said in Congress regarding Martin’s killing. “I am tired of watching them suffer at the hands of those who fear and despise them.”
“After a while one gets tired of the same old script being played out again and again,” said Bishop Donald Hilliard, a black church leader who recently met with US Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss the possibility of bringing federal hate-crime charges against George Zimmerman.
You know what? I’m getting tired of all this, too. I think a lot of people are.
, reared his porpoise-shaped head to claim that if Zimmerman is not arrested, “the protests will intensify and spill over into other dimensions,” which sounds vaguely threatening.

Taking it up a notch, three-foot-tall one-time filmmaker Spike Lee Tweeted George Zimmerman’s home address and asked for his followers to spread it far and wide.

Upping Spike’s ante, the New Black Panthers—sort of the New Coke of hate groups—have offered a million-dollar reward for Zimmerman’s capture. At a rally in Sanford, a New Black Panther who calls himself Mikhail Muhammad—somehow I suspect that’s not what his mommy named him—led a group in chants of “Justice for Trayvon!” and “Black Power!”

Celebrities and even Philadelphia’s District Attorney posed for pictures of themselves defiantly wearing hoodies in honor of Trayvon. On and on and on, from NBA teams posing in hoodies to surly protesters wearing boxes of Skittles around their necks in his memory, the meme sprouted like a hundred million nasty little mushrooms—Trayvon Martin was murdered in cold blood for no other reason than walking the streets of racist America while black. That was the script, and there was to be no deviating from it.

The reason they know this is because Trayvon was black. That, and because George Zimmerman is white. OK, not really—he reportedly self-identifies as Hispanic, and to look at him, he seems to have picked up his mother’s Mesoamerican genes—but he’s white enough.
And that’s all the evidence they need.
Well, that and the fact that Zimmerman identified Martin as black to a 911 dispatcher only minutes before the shooting. Then again, that’s only because the dispatcher asked him to specify whether the person walking through his gated community in a hoodie was white, black, or Hispanic.
Well, there’s the fact that Zimmerman muttered “fucking coons” on the 911 call. Or at least it sounds like he did. Or at least to isolate and sound-sweeten a segment of his 911 call before suggesting to listeners that he said “coons” and then played it ten times in a row in a dogged attempt to find hate where it might not actually have existed.
“You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Barack Obama said from the Rose Garden last week.
Yeah, we know, Mister President. We know exactly what you mean.
This country is racially psychotic. We’re at the point where the focus is what was in the killer’s mind rather than the fact that he killed someone, and that’s psychotic.
For days now we’ve been shown old pictures of a cherubic Trayvon and a brooding Zimmerman rather than much newer pictures of a gold-toothed Trayvon and a smiling Zimmerman.
We’ve been told that Trayvon weighed a hundred or so pounds less than Zimmerman—which is possibly untrue—but not that he was at least three inches taller than Zimmerman.
We’ve been told that Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 for an altercation with an undercover police officer, but not that Trayvon was visiting his father hundreds of miles from school on the night of his death because he had been suspended—possibly for trespassing on unauthorized school grounds. (His parents were able to have his high-school records sealed.)
We’ve witnessed surreal scenes where sound technicians try to determine whether Zimmerman said “coons,” but very little about a Facebook photo where someone reputed to be Trayvon Martin calls himself a MADE NIGGA.
We’ve heard very little about George Zimmerman’s statement to police that Martin had jumped him from behind, nor that the police report said Zimmerman was bleeding from his nose and from the back of his head, nor that a neighbor told reporters he saw Martin standing over Zimmerman and beating him.
After all, why should we hear any of these things? They don’t fit the script.
As I write this, the name “Trayvon Martin” yields over 15 million results on Google, up from about 11 million yesterday. In contrast, the name “Allen Coon” coughs up fewer than 8,000 hits. The unfortunately named Coon was the 13-year-old white kid in Kansas City who was doused in gasoline and set ablaze by two black teenagers as they told him, “You get what you deserve, white boy.”
This gruesome attack happened more than a week after the Trayvon Martin killing. Why haven’t you heard about it? Because it doesn’t fit the script. You’ve probably never heard of the Knoxville Five or the Wichita Massacre. Don’t blame yourself—they aren’t in the script, either.
When the media allow the usual race pimps to blow their rusty horns about how black males are under siege in America, they’ll never tell you that statistically, the biggest danger to black males isn’t the police or white males or even chubby Florida neighborhood-watch volunteers of vaguely Peruvian ancestry—it’s other black males. But you won’t find that in the script. It’s actually a very small and tidy script.
When a story becomes this huge, it’s being exploited for political reasons. If the media were really all that concerned with verifiable racially motivated murders, three white males pled guilty to “hate crimes” only last week regarding the death of a black man in Mississippi who was targeted for his skin color.
Problem is, Mississippi only counts for six electoral votes and always swings Republican. Florida boasts 27 electoral votes and is considered a crucial swing state in the upcoming presidential election. That could be a huge reason why Obama made loud noises about Trayvon Martin but apparently not a peep about Mississippi murder victim James Craig Anderson.
With all this talk about hatred I must confess that at the moment, I feel filled with hatred—at least up to my gills and possibly up to my sinuses. But I am willing to take a polygraph test to determine which group I hate more—American blacks, American politicians, or mainstream American journalists. The boys in the hoodies wouldn’t register a blip.

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CNN said Martin was caught with womens jewelry in his school bag, and burglary tool.

The only person who could give an account of what happened is being assassinated over and over again by the white man.

I'm just waiting for Fox to allege he had an AK47 and a hand grenade on him.

Anyway, here's an opinion piece:

School Report: Trayvon Martin Found with 'Jewelry and Burglary Tool'






Submitted by Zach Lisabeth on Mar 26, 2012
Recently divulged information about Trayvon Martin's checkered academic history has added a new dimension to the very public discussion about the deceased teenager's month-old shooting.
As it turns out, Martin was suspended a number of times from Krop Senior High School in Miami Gardens for infractions ranging from tardiness and truancy up to possession of marijuana and a screwdriver that the school's security staff described as a "burglary tool."
The troubling incidents date back to October 2011, when Martin was allegedly caught with a horde of women's jewelry and the aforementioned screwdriver, according the Miami Herald. According to a report issued by Trayvon's school district, on October 21, security camera footage showed Trayvon Martin and two other students writing "W.T.F." on a hallway locker. A security guard saw the footage, detained Trayvon and searched his bag for the offending marker. In the process of the search, the guard uncovered 12 pieces of women's jewelry, a watch and the screwdriver.


Trayvon claimed at the time that an unnamed friend furnished him with the jewelry and temporarily avoided disciplinary action -- only to be subsequently suspended for the graffiti.
School police impounded the jewelry and sent photographs of the items to local police, according the district's own report. Martin was then suspended, warned and dismissed.
The Martin family's attorney confirmed that Trayvon had been suspended for graffiti, but insisted that the the family knew nothing about the jewelry or alleged "burglary tool" mentioned in the school district's report. Both the Martin family and their attorney suggested that the report about Trayvon's disciplinary history was disingenuous and may even have been intended to "demonize" the deceased youth.
"We think everybody is trying to demonize him," said attorney Ben Crump, reacting to the school district's report. "Trayvon, who was 17 when he died, had never been arrested."
Trayvon's mother paints her son as a typical teenage boy, mischievous perhaps but never involved with gangs or violence. She says that when she had to transfer Trayvon out of his previous school in Carol City, high school officials begged her to let him remain because Trayvon was such a model student.
It's hard not to sympathize with Trayvon's mother. The real question everyone should be asking is: Does any of this matter?
Even if everything the school district alleges in their report is true, does it really shed any evidentiary light on the events of February 26? Does it somehow justify the shooting of an unarmed boy?
Trayvon Martin's "graffiti" was not some violent alleyway gang tag, but rather a vulgar, childish scrawl on a school locker. And to suggest that the screwdriver in his backpack was more than a screwdriver may be unduly prejudicial -- and at worst intentionally misleading. Of course, Zimmerman's defenders will argue that it proves a pattern of criminal behavior.
But Trayvon's supposed pattern of misbehavior and serial suspensions doesn't prove he was "up to no good" on that tragic night.
Trayvon's mother's outrage is warranted.
Ever since her young son was shot by a (potentially bigoted) neighborhood watchman, the powers-that-be, whether they be police officers or school officials, have thus-far vindicated George Zimmerman and shifted national attention away from Sanford, Florida.
This latest question about Trayvon's character and academic record may complicate this case -- but it may also provide point a garish spotlight directly at the most troubling American attitudes about race, youth and justice.
On one hand, Zimmerman will argue that that Trayvon's suspensions, magic marker graffiti and screwdriver/burglary tool prove he was dealing with a criminal thug -- but they may just obfuscate the real questions that Trayvon's shooting has unearthed -- questions about how our society views young, black men and how the media jumps at half-formed reports pertaining to ongoing investigations.
As Trayvon Martin's grieving mother so eloquently puts it: “They killed my son and now they are trying to kill his reputation."
She may be right.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

CNN said Martin was caught with womens jewelry in his school bag, and burglary tool.

The only person who could give an account of what happened is being assassinated over and over again by the white man.

I'm just waiting for Fox to allege he had an AK47 and a hand grenade on him.

Anyway, here's an opinion piece:

School Report: Trayvon Martin Found with 'Jewelry and Burglary Tool'






Submitted by Zach Lisabeth on Mar 26, 2012
Recently divulged information about Trayvon Martin's checkered academic history has added a new dimension to the very public discussion about the deceased teenager's month-old shooting.
As it turns out, Martin was suspended a number of times from Krop Senior High School in Miami Gardens for infractions ranging from tardiness and truancy up to possession of marijuana and a screwdriver that the school's security staff described as a "burglary tool."
The troubling incidents date back to October 2011, when Martin was allegedly caught with a horde of women's jewelry and the aforementioned screwdriver, according the Miami Herald. According to a report issued by Trayvon's school district, on October 21, security camera footage showed Trayvon Martin and two other students writing "W.T.F." on a hallway locker. A security guard saw the footage, detained Trayvon and searched his bag for the offending marker. In the process of the search, the guard uncovered 12 pieces of women's jewelry, a watch and the screwdriver.


Trayvon claimed at the time that an unnamed friend furnished him with the jewelry and temporarily avoided disciplinary action -- only to be subsequently suspended for the graffiti.
School police impounded the jewelry and sent photographs of the items to local police, according the district's own report. Martin was then suspended, warned and dismissed.
The Martin family's attorney confirmed that Trayvon had been suspended for graffiti, but insisted that the the family knew nothing about the jewelry or alleged "burglary tool" mentioned in the school district's report. Both the Martin family and their attorney suggested that the report about Trayvon's disciplinary history was disingenuous and may even have been intended to "demonize" the deceased youth.
"We think everybody is trying to demonize him," said attorney Ben Crump, reacting to the school district's report. "Trayvon, who was 17 when he died, had never been arrested."
Trayvon's mother paints her son as a typical teenage boy, mischievous perhaps but never involved with gangs or violence. She says that when she had to transfer Trayvon out of his previous school in Carol City, high school officials begged her to let him remain because Trayvon was such a model student.
It's hard not to sympathize with Trayvon's mother. The real question everyone should be asking is: Does any of this matter?
Even if everything the school district alleges in their report is true, does it really shed any evidentiary light on the events of February 26? Does it somehow justify the shooting of an unarmed boy?
Trayvon Martin's "graffiti" was not some violent alleyway gang tag, but rather a vulgar, childish scrawl on a school locker. And to suggest that the screwdriver in his backpack was more than a screwdriver may be unduly prejudicial -- and at worst intentionally misleading. Of course, Zimmerman's defenders will argue that it proves a pattern of criminal behavior.
But Trayvon's supposed pattern of misbehavior and serial suspensions doesn't prove he was "up to no good" on that tragic night.
Trayvon's mother's outrage is warranted.
Ever since her young son was shot by a (potentially bigoted) neighborhood watchman, the powers-that-be, whether they be police officers or school officials, have thus-far vindicated George Zimmerman and shifted national attention away from Sanford, Florida.
This latest question about Trayvon's character and academic record may complicate this case -- but it may also provide point a garish spotlight directly at the most troubling American attitudes about race, youth and justice.
On one hand, Zimmerman will argue that that Trayvon's suspensions, magic marker graffiti and screwdriver/burglary tool prove he was dealing with a criminal thug -- but they may just obfuscate the real questions that Trayvon's shooting has unearthed -- questions about how our society views young, black men and how the media jumps at half-formed reports pertaining to ongoing investigations.
As Trayvon Martin's grieving mother so eloquently puts it: “They killed my son and now they are trying to kill his reputation."
She may be right.

You're a real dip shit, FOX is not racist, they routinely fellate Martin Luther King Jr. The guy was a thug, all this shit coming out, ever think about what we don't know?

FOX is not racist

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

FOX is not racist

It's not u idiot.

Anyway I bet dozens of black teenagers have been killed across the country since this murder. I don't see what the big deal is.

^^I guess if you are more racist than fox, then fox is going to look like a bunch of dick sucking lefties. In which case mr gribbs is right, as much as he is so odious he makes fox look quite reasonable.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I wonder if the kid had been a blond haired, blue eyed son of a Baptist minister.....would this story have gone further than the local radio station...?

Guaranteed, mate. And they'd be asking if the shooter was an illegal alien. Fox would be wanking themselves silly.

Actually Harry, Fox has carried this story rather well. Compared to some of the other channels they really have been very "fair and balanced".....

FOX has not yet tried and conviced Zimmerman however......so I guess they must be very racist after all....

The one blatently biased thing they did was to allow a long time friend of Zimmerman to speak openly on TV......and horror of horrors, he was a black man...

This friend told the world that the now larger than life racist Mr. Zimmerman was a really decent guy without a "racist" bone in his body and that he had often been involved in mentoring young black and Hispanic kids etc. Shocking I know.....can't possible be true....as Mr Gribbs excellent article says......it does not fit the script.

Here's a video news report (from a major network) with some pretty damning evidence re: Trayvon Martin's actions:

Sanford Police Speak Out In Trayvon Martin Case - Yahoo! News

Separate the events of the night Martin was shot by Zimmerman from all reference to their individual past records and a clearer picture of the scenario emerges.

In most courts in the western world any reference to an accused's past is ruled by the presiding judge or magistrate not to be taken into consideration by a jury set to hear the case, as it would prejudice the defendant's and the plaintiffs rights to a fair trial.

Trial by media is not trial by law, it's only speculation.
Whether or not Martin or Zimmerman is seen as a "good" or "bad" guy is immaterial to the event itself.

So far, all we know of the night in question is that Zimmerman, against directive, wilfully stalked and eventually killed Martin.
That act was unlawful from the moment he stepped out of his car to follow Martin.

Zimmerman was given a directive, advice not to follow Martin, by the 911 dispatcher.
He had no authority to act independently of his terms of office as a neighbourhood watch operative.

“With a single punch,” the Orlando Sentinel, citing police sources, reported Monday, “Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer … climbed on top of [him] and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered.”

“That is the account Zimmerman gave police,” the paper said, “and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say.”

Martin’s use of social media provides insight into the true nature of the liberal elite’s darling little victim:

Correspondence with Martin on Twitter before he died alludes to an incident with a bus driver. “Yu ain’t tell me you swung on a bus driver,” Martin’s cousin wrote to him on Feb. 21.

The same week, Martin was suspended for 10 days from Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School in North Miami-Dade.

That time it was for drugs. Last fall, he was suspended for vandalism. School officials also found him in possession of evidently stolen jewelry and burglary tools. His apparent penchant for burglary would explain his behaving in a way that attracted the attention of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

Here’s an example of what the angelic Trayvon, or NO_LIMIT_NIGGA as he liked to call himself, left behind on Twitter:

Trayvon's Tweets the Daily Caller

Trayvon Martin: George Zimmerman's account to police of the Trayvon Martin shooting. - Orlando Sentinel

Trayvon's parents paint portrait of typical teenager - KansasCity.com

One less thug punk...

Originally Posted by ENT

Zimmerman was given a directive, advice not to follow Martin, by the 911 dispatcher. He had no authority to act independently of his terms of office as a neighbourhood watch operative.

The exact quote from the 911 operator- 'We don't need you to do that.' Advice, yes, but it was in no way a 'directive'.

As part of the neighborhood watch, he had every right to ask a non-resident (who was on private property- the general public does not have free access to gated communities- it is privately-owned land jointly held by the residents) what his business being there was.

Originally Posted by FailSafe

Here's a video news report (from a major network) with some pretty damning evidence re: Trayvon Martin's actions:

Sanford Police Speak Out In Trayvon Martin Case - Yahoo! News

"pretty damning evidence re: Trayvon Martin's actions"? Pretty damning evidence re your lack of intelligence, more like. What waste of time.

^

Yes, police reports and eyewitness accounts don't count as 'damning evidence'- your brainless liberal sensibilities are really funny.

And then there's this:

Hashim Nzinga, a New Black Panther Party leader who gained attention when he announced a bounty on the shooter in the highly publicized Trayvon Martin case, has been arrested, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said.
Nzinga, 49, was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon…

Originally Posted by FailSafe

Originally Posted by ENT

Zimmerman was given a directive, advice not to follow Martin, by the 911 dispatcher. He had no authority to act independently of his terms of office as a neighbourhood watch operative.

The exact quote from the 911 operator- 'We don't need you to do that.' Advice, yes, but it was in no way a 'directive'.

As part of the neighborhood watch, he had every right to ask a non-resident (who was on private property- the general public does not have free access to gated communities- it is privately-owned land jointly held by the residents) what his business being there was.

Martin had every legal right to be there as a guest of his family.
Zimmerman exceeded his authority in stalking the youth.

Martin exercised his own right of self defence in avoiding being followed by a stranger, then confronting him, in his own legal locale. It was up to Zimmermann to identify himself as a guardian of that locale.

That one point, of not either issuing a warning nor of identifying himself put Zimmerman in conflict with the law.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

And then there's this:

Hashim Nzinga, a New Black Panther Party leader who gained attention when he announced a bounty on the shooter in the highly publicized Trayvon Martin case, has been arrested, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said.
Nzinga, 49, was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon…

I will give you that one booners. Thats funny!

Sounds like he took his "panther name" from his favourite bit of kit from KFC.

Originally Posted by robuzo

Originally Posted by FailSafe

^

Yes, police reports and eyewitness accounts don't count as 'damning evidence'- your brainless liberal sensibilities are really funny.

Quote something from that report that you think counts as evidence. The only thing I heard that I don't recall hearing elsewhere is that Martin's father said the crying for help was not his boy. Big fucking deal. Some wannabe vigilante pussy is crying for help one minute and blasting the guy he stalked the next. It had already been established that it was the killer who was crying for help after getting decked by a teenager.

Tell me this- had Martin thrown a punch and the fatassed armed loser fallen, cracked his head and died would you be defending the boy's right to defend himself?

The fact that it looks like it was Zimmerman who called for help and this was backed up by the parents is pretty big, considering how they said it was Martin at first (and went on national TV to proclaim this)- did you also hear on the link I provided that witnesses corroborated Zimmerman's account that Martin was the aggressor? What do you think would be presented as evidence if there is ever a trial?

If eyewitness accounts said that Zimmerman attacked Martin and Martin defended himself, yes, I would defend Martin- however, it appears that isn't the case (which you should well know by now).

Here's what I believe happened- Zimmerman came across as a tough guy and possible rent-a-cop to Martin, who decided he wasn't going to take any shit from the guy- they got into a verbal altercation, which (it appears) advanced to a physical altercation due to Martin's actions (note that Zimmerman had already called the police and knew they were on their way)- Martin started slamming Zimmerman's head into the pavement (corroborated by witnesses and backed up by his injuries)- Zimmerman then shot Martin to prevent possibly being killed himself.

Let me ask you a question- if you were in a fight, even if you had started it and it was entirely your doing, would you let the other person kill you before you used deadly force to defend yourself? If Martin was the one using deadly force, then Zimmerman was within his rights to defend himself using the same, even if he initiated the altercation.