Slain Florida Teen's Parents Seek Justice

     On February 26th, a Florida teenager named Trayvon Martin was confronted and then shot by a neighborhood watch captain named George Zimmerman.  The teen, an African-American, was on his way home from a trip to the store when Zimmerman, who was on watch in the neighborhood that night, saw him and deemed him "suspicious".  After contacting the local authorities to notify them of the suspicious person, the police told Zimmerman to stop following the suspect.  Zimmerman did not follow this course of action.  Instead, he confronted the teen.  According to multiple 911 calls that were released for the first time this weekend, Trayvon can be heard screaming for help and then a single gunshot can be heard.  By the time the police arrived on the seen, Trayvon was dead.  Zimmerman claimed that he was being attacked by the teenager and shot him in self defense.  A story that local police have stood behind when trying to explain why Zimmerman has not been arrested.  However, the child was unarmed.  All he had on him was a bag of skittles and an iced tea.  Because of the outrage of Trayvon's family, this story is getting a lot more national public attention.  This new attention is also what prompted the release of the 911 tapes.  Even though it would appear that this shooting was not an act of self-defense, Zimmerman has not been charged with any crime.  The local authorities have made statements at press conferences claiming that an arrest of Zimmerman would result in a lawsuit.  After hearing the 911 tapes, many conversations of lawsuits are coming up.  Some anticipate Trayvon's family to sue the police department, the homeowners' association responsible for the neighborhood watch, and possibly even the city or state.  Many believe that this shooting was the result of racial profiling on the part of Zimmerman and believe the shooting should be considered a hate crime worthy of 2nd degree murder charges.  At the very least I would think that there is enough evidence to charge Zimmerman with wrongful death or possibly manslaughter.  It is very odd that no charges have been filed and Zimmerman is still free.  The only thing that I could think of after listening to several of the 911 conversations is that, even though you can hear Trayvon yelling for help, it is unclear what was going on.  It is also unclear what Trayvon did immediately leading up to the single gunshot that took his life.  Even though these questions are unanswerable from the tapes and witness testimonies, it is clear that Zimmerman was advised not to pursue the boy by the police, but he chose to confront him anyways.  It is also clear that Trayvon had not committed any crime.  He was simply going home after picking up a snack.  It is also clear that the boy was unarmed, which leads me to think that this shooting was definitely not in self defense.  Zimmerman was the one who confronted Martin, not the other way around.  It was then Zimmerman who fired a shot.  This sounds like straight up aggression, not self defense.  With the attention this story is getting, I am hoping that Zimmerman will be behind bars soon.