Trayvon Martin 911 Call Records Teen, Not Zimmerman, Screaming for Help
Experts say that screams for help recorded in a 911 call on the evening of Trayvon Martin's death belonged to the late teen and not gunman George Zimmerman.
Two independent experts compared the voices in the 911 emergency call to a voice recording of Zimmerman on the radio and are arguing that the cries for help during the Feb. 26 emergency call did not come from Zimmerman.
"That's a young man screaming," forensics expert Ed Primeau told the Orlando Sentinel. "I believe that's Trayvon Martin in the background, without a doubt."
A second forensics expert, Tom Owen of Forensic Services LLC, said that there was a 48 percent match from the screams in the phone call to Zimmerman's voice, but added that the match would need to be higher than 90 percent to be considered a positive match.
"The tests concluded that it's not the voice of Mr. Zimmerman," Owen told MSNBC.com.
Martin, 17, was shot dead in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26. He was shot by neighborhood watch captain Zimmerman, 28, who has claimed he shot the teen in self-defense after the teen attacked him as he was walking to his vehicle. Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, also claimed that he screamed for help during the confrontation with Martin, who is African-American.
At the time of his death, Martin was unarmed wearing a hooded sweatshirt and carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea.
Zimmerman has yet to be arrested in the case, as police have cited Florida's "Stand Your Ground Law," which gives citizens the ability to use deadly force in the face of a threat.
The case has sparked national outrage and generated a heated debate on race, racial profiling, and hate crimes.
Last week Martin's parents attended a special congressional hearing on racial profiling and hate crimes.
"As I've said before and I'll say it again: Trayvon was our son, but Trayvon is your son," Trayvon's mother, Sybrina Fulton, told Congress. "A lot of people can relate to the situation and it breaks their heart just like it breaks mine."
