An anonymous seemingly credible witness raises more doubts in George Zimmerman's claims to have defended himself from having his head smashed against the sidewalk by Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman shot and killed the 17-year-old Martin in Sanford, Fla., after a confrontation that has led to a firestorm of local and national protest because he wasn't arrested. The state has authorized a special prosecutor in the case and the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating both the shooting and the Sanford Police Department in general.
In another story on Dateline NBC, a witness seemed to corroborate the one interviewed by Cooper:
According to Mary Cutcher on Dateline NBC, she and her roommate both saw Zimmerman "straddling the body, basically a foot on both sides of Trayvon's body, and his hands pressed on his back."
Mary Cutcher told Dateline NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview:
“It sounded young. It didn’t sound like a grown man is my point. It sounded to me like someone was in distress and it wasn’t like a crying, sobbing boo-hoo, it was a definite whine."
Cutcher added that Zimmerman told her and her roommate to call the police. "Zimmerman never turned him over or tried to help him or CPR or anything," Cutcher said.
Combined with the police surveillance video of Zimmerman released Wednesday, the story of self-defense that supposedly resulted in head lacerations and a broken nose seems unlikely. A 6-minute version of that video is
here.
UPDATE: Zimmerman's lawyer, who was eager to talk to the media previously, changed his tune and had nothing to say about the police video:
"I'm not going to litigate this case in the media," said attorney Craig Sonner. "It looks like it's a standard booking video of when they brought him in. I can't tell anything from this video." [...]
While Zimmerman's attorney would not comment on the tape, he also seemed unsure whether his client had actually received medical attention for his wounds.
"The facts will come out in this case. I'm not the source of facts," responded Sonner. "I'm not the witness. I don't have access to police files."