Apr 2, 2012 6 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
(CNN) — Trayvon Martin’s parents will ask the U.S. Justice Department on Monday to review a Florida prosecutor’s interactions with police investigating the teen’s shooting death, a lawyer for the family said.
The Justice Department launched an investigation into Martin’s death on March 19, but the family is now asking it to look for possible interference by State Attorney Norm Wolfinger’s office with a Sanford, Florida, police detective, attorney Ben Crump said.
Martin, 17, was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, 28, after Zimmerman called police to report him as a “suspicious” person on the evening of February 26.
A police report filed hours after the shooting lists manslaughter under the offenses section. But police have cited Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force anywhere they feel a reasonable threat of death or serious injury, for not immediately arresting Zimmerman.
ABC News has reported that the lead homicide investigator, Chris Serino, filed an affidavit pushing for charges the night of the killing, but was overruled by the state attorney’s office.
“It certainly confirmed all of my thoughts that this investigation had been botched from the beginning and that people other than me knew that there was supposed to be an arrest made,” Martin’s father, Tracy, told CNN after the ABC News report.
Zimmerman said he killed Martin in self defense after the teen punched him and slammed his head on the sidewalk, according to an Orlando Sentinel report that was later confirmed by Sanford police.
Zimmerman’s brother said medical records will prove that his brother was attacked and his nose was broken by Martin before he fatally shot the teen.
