Tracy Martin told the Sanford City Commission Monday that George Zimmerman took away his son and best friend when he shot Trayvon Martin.
“For the Sanford Police Department to feel as though they were going to sweep another young black minority death under the rug is an atrocity,” he said, calling for police to be held accountable and for Zimmerman, 28, to be put on trial and sentenced for the fatal shooting of his 17-year-old son. “We’re not asking for an eye for an eye, we’re asking for justice, justice, justice.”
Martin got the most fired up responding to what he called the “slander” of his son.
On Monday, a Martin family spokesperson confirmed that Martin had been suspended for 10 days from his Miami high school for possession of an empty marijuana baggie. Separately, authorities revealed that Martin took down Zimmerman with one punch, then climbed on top of him and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times before the community watch volunteer fatally shot him in the chest on Feb. 26, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.
Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, said at a community forum in Eatonville early Monday afternoon that the leak of the marijuana information was an attempt to demonize her son.
Before the commission meeting began, a large rally was held in Sanford for the slain teen from Miami Gardens on the one-month anniversary of his death.
The National Trayvon Martin March for Justice began just after 4 p.m. at Centennial Park and ended at a special meeting of the commission at the Sanford Civic Center. Sanford Police and other law enforcement officers guided the marchers through traffic as they protested against the very police escorting them.
Protesters chanted that they wanted justice now for Martin. Their signs gave the same message: “Justice For Trayvon.”
“We all have Trayvon Martins. I have a son that’s 12 months old. And I see Trayvon in him," said Patrick Franklin, the president and CEO of the Urban League of Palm Beach County, which helped organize the march. "Our kids understand what’s happened, and they are voicing their opinion."
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The Rev. Jesse Jackson and several celebrities were expected to take part in the march, which was led by Pastor Jamal Bryant.
Marchers not headed to the Sanford Civic Center gathered in nearby Fort Mellon Park. More than a thousand people there watched the meeting as it was broadcast on twin Jumbotrons.
As the commision's meeting began just before 5:15, Mayor Jeff Triplett said that City Commissioner Mark McCarty had been taken to a hospital with heart issues. Triplett said McCarty has had heart problems before.
The meeting began with a moment of silence in honor of Martin's family.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, after saying that they were delivering more than 2 million signatures from a petition posted on Change.org demanding a prosecution in Martin's shooting, noted that Monday was the one-month anniversary of his death.
“We do not need a trial and a jury to make an arrest. An arrest is based on probable cause," he said.
He said the Martin case is "making the world know you as a place of racial intolerance and double standards."
"For one man, would you compromise the integrity of one commission?" Sharpton said. "Zimmerman is not worth the history of this city! You need to arrest him and redeem this city right now!”
Family attorney Benjamin Crump raised several questions about the police's conduct in the case. He asked which officer decided to take Zimmerman's statements "as the Gospel, and let him go home that night with the clothes and the evidence he had on his body, thus taking the evidence?”
Crump also reiterated that "there was a real issue" why authorities did not release Trayvon Martin's body to his father for three days.
Congresswoman Corinne Brown said that "based on the facts, there should be an arrest." She and Crump thanked the mayor for releasing the 911 tapes, and Triplett in turn thanked Brown for her help "going down the line that we're going" in pursuit of a full investigation.
“We’ve got to be able to heal and move forward. But until we have an arrest, will not happen,” Brown, whose district includes Sanford, told the commission.
In Miami-Dade, several dozen students from the Miami Lakes Educational Center marched after school Monday in support of Martin, before a planned meetup with students from a dozen or so other schools.
The group headed north before turning west onto NW 183rd St. (SR 860) just before 3:30 p.m. with the aid of a slew of police vehicles who shut down a major intersection. They gathered for a prayer at the end.
Earlier Monday, dozens of students from Coral Reef High School lined up outside their school at lunchtime. A school secretary said no one was inside the school, as everyone was outside demonstrating.
Last week, students at several South Florida high schools held midday walkouts in protest.
Martin's former classmates at Krop Senior High School dressed in black Monday to protest the shooting. A candlelight vigil was scheduled for Monday night.
Martin, 17, of Miami Gardens was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on Feb. 26 in Sanford.
Martin was visiting with his father at his father's girlfriend's home in a gated community and had gone to buy a bag of Skittles and iced tea at a nearby convenience store and was walking back when the shooting happened.
Though Martin was unarmed, Zimmerman told police the shooting was self-defense, and no charges have been filed in the case.
On Monday, it was reported that Zimmerman told police Martin punched him in the face, knocked him to the ground and beat him while he was on the ground.
The shooting has led to marches and rallies in South Florida and across the country, as the family and activists push for Zimmerman's arrest.
On Sunday, Jackson spoke at Macedonia Baptist Church, delivering a sermon titled "The Substance of Things Hoped For," and calling for, among other things, Martin's "martyr" death to be used as an opportunity to revive the Civil Rights Commission and draw attention to longstanding issues.
"The blood of the innocent has power," Jackson said to shouts of "Amen" and loud clapping. "There's power in the blood of Emmett Till! There's power in in the blood of Medgar Evers! There's power in the blood of Dr. King!"
Meanwhile, Zimmerman's supporters continued to speak in his defense Monday, saying certain aspects of the story made public in the case aren't quite accurate.
"I think we need to let the investigation come forward and let all the facts in this case come out," attorney Craig Sonner said on NBC's "Today Show." "I think it's going to tell a different story than the way it's been related and portrayed in the media so far."
Sonner said Zimmerman suffered a broken nose and head injury in an altercation with Martin and said reports that his client was 250 pounds were inaccurate.
"This case has taken on a whole different meaning because it's been interpreted as being a racial issue and it's not a racial issue," Sonner said. "George Zimmerman is absolutely not a racist, whatever happened that night was self-defense."
Friend Joe Oliver said Zimmerman was a semester away from getting a criminal justice degree.
"I learned that he couldn't stop crying for days after the shooting," Oliver said. "George is just a genuine human being and he was out there performing his duties as a watch captain."
The U.S. Justice Department and FBI are investigating the shooting, and last week, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. announced he was temporarily stepping down during the investigation into the shooting.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has appointed a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into Martin's death and has formed a task force to hold hearings on the shooting.
