Autopsy Shows Trayvon Martin Killed by Single Shot

An autopsy report shows that Trayvon Martin was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest that was fired from an “intermediate range,” according to NBC News.

The autopsy finding by the Volusia County, Fla., medical examiner also shows the 17-year-old had one other injury — a small abrasion about a quarter-inch in size — below the knuckle on his left ring finger, NBC News reported Wednesday.

 

The autopsy finding comes a day after the release of a medical examination report showing that George Zimmerman, the community watchman charged with killing Martin, was treated after the shooting for a fractured nose, two black eyes and two cuts to the back of his head.

 

The medical report was reportedly prepared by Zimmerman’s own family physician the day after the shooting.

 

Zimmerman has been released on a $150,000 bond and is awaiting trial on a second-degree murder charge, stemming from the shooting that took place Feb. 26 at a gated community in Sanford, Fla., where Martin was visiting and Zimmerman was a neighborhood patrol volunteer.

 

Zimmerman, 28, has acknowledged following Martin as a suspicious suspect even after police told him not to. But he says he shot the teenager in self-defense only after Martin attacked him as he was walking back to his truck.

Initially, the Sanford police said Zimmerman’s conduct seemed to follow the guidelines of Florida’s so-called Stand Your Ground law, giving citizens the right to use deadly force to defend themselves. But after the case drew criticism and protests from across the country, a special prosecutor was brought in to handle the investigation.

 

According to a report Wednesday in The New York Times, early sloppy police work and missteps in the case will likely make it difficult for prosecutors to clearly lay out what happened that night when Zimmerman first spotted Martin.

Martin was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, walking through the community called the Retreat at Twin Lakes.

 

Among other things, the Times reported, the police failed to adequately canvass the neighborhood to determine that Martin was in fact a guest there, and they failed to secure the area and the truck that Zimmerman was driving to retrieve and protect potential evidence. 

 

Zimmerman was also not tested for drugs or alcohol that night, and one police officer reported that it was the neighborhood watchman who called out for help and not Martin, as at least one witness reported.

 

About the only thing that is clear in the case, the Times reported, is the Zimmerman and Martin encounter only lasted eight minutes from its beginning until its fatal end.