REPORT: Witnesses Heard Trayvon Martin Crying Before Fatal Gunshot

There are new developments in the case involving the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black teenager in suburban Orlando. Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was visiting family in Sanford from his home in Miami on February 26. Martin was returning from the store when he was shot by self-appointed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, who has not been charged by police.

Three witnesses contacted by the Miami Herald contradict Zimmerman's claims and say they heard the teen crying before the fatal gunshot.

Three witnesses contacted by The Miami Herald say they saw or heard the moments before and after the Miami Gardens teenager’s killing. All three said they heard the last howl for help from a despondent boy, and believe the sequence of sounds shatters the notion that Trayvon was killed in self-defense.

Police have not moved from their official statement of the shooting. But as the controversy grows, so does the number of voices disputing the official version that watch captain George Zimmerman gave to police: that the six-foot, three-inch, 140-pound teen assaulted him when Zimmerman, 28, tried to question him. In fear for his life, he pulled Kel Tek 9mm handgun from his waistband and shot.

"I heard someone crying — not boo-hoo crying, but scared or terrified or hurt maybe," said Mary Cutcher, 31, who lives in the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome community where the shooting occurred. "To me, it was a child."

Cutcher adds that police have dismissed her account and refused to take her statement.

"We heard no fighting, no wrestling, no punching. We heard a boy crying. As soon as the shot went off, it stopped, which tells me it was the child crying. If it had been Zimmerman crying, it wouldn’t have stopped. If you’re hurting, you’re hurting."

"She and her friend say they heard the sounds from a few steps away, where they were inside beside an open window. Seconds later, they dashed out to find a boy face down on the ground and a man standing over him, a foot on each side of the body on the ground, with his hands pinning the shooting victim down.

"I asked him, 'What’s happening here? What’s going on?' " said Cutcher’s friend, Selma Mora Lamilla. "The third time, I was indignant, and he said, 'just call the police.' Then I saw him with his hands over his head in the universal sign of: 'Oh man, I messed up.'"

A 13-year-old boy walking his dog also heard crying. "I heard screaming and crying for help," Austin Brown told the Herald. "I heard, 'Help me.' "

On the evening of February 26, the 28-year-old Zimmerman called 911 to report a "suspicious" man, authorities said. The 911 dispatcher told Zimmerman not to leave his SUV and confront Martin but he ignored their instructions. This was Zimmerman's "46th call in the past 14 months to report shady people" or other alleged disturbances, reports the Herald.

The Sanford Police Department has not explained why Zimmerman left his vehicle or how he and Martin came to be face to face. Zimmerman also reportedly made a comment about Martin's race on the 911 call, which police have refused to release.

Trayvon Martin was 140 pounds, nearly 100 lbs less than Zimmerman. The teen was unarmed and carrying a soda and Skittles. The case is now in the hands of the Seminole County State's Attorney.

Martin's family is requesting that the Department of Justice review the case. The family's attorney may "file a complaint against Sanford police for witness intimidation, tampering and obstruction of justice," reports the Orlando Sentinel.

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Comments

[Laurence]

This is outrageous. If as many people were talking about this half as much as they were talking about Whitney Houston's death we would get somewhere. Where is the national media on this. CRIMINAL. My blood is boiling.

[Osiris]

Why is this not all over the front page of Yahoo like all the other white kids who died?

That could easily have been my own child walking around and getting killed by some lunatic. *sigh* I have to get out of Florida.

[Kirk]

I hope this family gets the best legal team since O'Jay Simpson. I hope they win so much from the Sanford Police Department that the town can be renamed: Trayvonville.

Imagine if your child was shot to death, murdered, in cold blood in a gated community basically because of his skin color. And to top it off, the Police Department is protecting the killer. UNBELIEVABLE! Americans You Must Do Better! You Can!

[Barton Hughes]

@ Laurence - I feel you man. Charges better be filed soon!
Hopefully the coverage, Fl NCAAP or family's lawyer will make something happen. Thanks Rod.

[Mike]

I've been keeping up to date with this story as much as possible. Other than here on Rod's site, Huffington Post and black-oriented websites have I seen this story getting any major attention nationally. I am sick and disgusted how this so called "town watch" guy can carry a gun and patrol a neighborhood as if he's a police officer. Shoot an innocent black boy and get away with it. All I know is charges better be brought up against Zimmerman and not some flimsy manslaughter either (Murder 1) and make him eligible for the death penalty. This was a murder of this young boy!! I'm ready to go down to Florida and fight! I am tired of this.

[kayman23]

Florida, Orlando in particular, acts like the rest of the US South, where race still matters and police doesn't care. I love the urban US South, but Orlando has always been a peculiar city in my opinion because they pretend to be place of other but has as many churches as Nashville.

This case is sad, and unfortunate litmus to show the US as whole is still dealing with the issues of race.

[Jamel Smith]

I hope Zimmerman is arrested and charged with first degree murder for killing Trayvon Martin. It breaks my heart that a 17-year-old boy had to Lose his life for the color of his skin.

[hhj]

i thought he was white (zimmerman) is he hispanic?? dang, still messed up that he would take that young man's life!!!!!!!

[aaronthemoor]

i will give white people this: when something happens to their young people, they are unstoppable in seeking justice. look at the tyler clementi case. he killed himself, but his parents were unstoppable until his roommate was tried and convicted. look at amanda knox in italy. she gave conflicting stories to the italian police, but her family and friends were unstoppable until she was released. two other people were convicted and imprisoned including an african man, but amanda knox was released.

we as black people don't scream and shout when something happens to our black youth. ironically, most of our black youth are killed by other black youth and we still don't open our mouths. we can't sit around waiting for jesse jackson and al sharpton to start the march. they're getting old and won't be among us forever. that's another thing. why does the spokesperson's for african-americans always have to be someone in a religious position as if that's the only so-called authority in the black community?

i ache for trayvon martin. he was just a baby. really, he was just a baby and he was getting treats that appealed to a kid. his life is worth more than a can of soda and a bag of skittles. how many emmett tils can we countenance as black people?

zimmerman is a monster and a bully and he violated trayvon's civil rights and some shrewd attorney: probably white is going to see to it that the sanford police and zimmerman regret the day they ever heard trayvon's name.

at seventeen, young black men go out of their way to be macho and not to cry out for help. you have to imagine how much his murderer zimmerman was hurting trayvon for him to call out for help. it chills my blood to imagine that young man could be my little brother or my little cousin or my little nephew and some deranged, sociopath is pinning him down with all of his weight and brandishing a gun in his face.

when trayvon lost his life, he was suffering terribly with no comfort and no solace. he was terrified and the last face he would see in his short young life was that of the coward and sociopath who took his life and was probably hurling racial epithets at him as well.

zimmerman went hunting that night and the prize was an innocent, defenseless black youth who just happened to be wearing a hoodie. how zimmerman has slept since this incident is a testament to the fact that he is not human and does not possess a scintilla of a soul.

i am no fan of geraldo rivera, but he once stated that he had been around policemen all through his career who spoke openly about their racism toward other minorities. it does not surprise me that the police saw the helpless body of a slain black youth and believed that he was the aggressor who needed to be destroyed.

more trayvon martins will die and more zimmermans will get away with it if we as black people don't use our voice and don't start saying something when our black youth are killed by other black youth which happens often and is seldom discussed in the black community. in fact, we in the black community often protect and shield young thugs and murderers.

[elg]

Listening to the tape with Trayvon's voice calling out for help, it came to me that Trayvon and Zimmerman did not have a physical altercation.

Trayvon's unanswered cries for help do NOT indicate that he had just administered a beatdown to a man who outweighed him by as much as 100 pounds. His cries are indicative of a child calling for help.

What happened was that Zimmerman got out of his vehicle, against the advice of the 911 dispatcher, chased Trayvon down then shot and killed him.

The Sanford police department then got together with Zimmerman to figure out what to do. They decided to LIE and say that Trayvon got the best of Zimmerman in a "fight" and that Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon in "self defense".

What actually happened was that Trayvon was murdered in cold blood (there was no fight) by a sociopath and the Sanford police department took the side of the sociopath.

[mark meachem]

this is why you and me as black people have to get out
and vote ,their must be change in this world , we must
stand up and stop this savage treatment of our black
people.