Why didn't George Zimmerman try starting a conversation with Trayvon Martin instead of killing him?

[csziggy]

97. So was I - from the original released recording

My times are slightly off the ones on the transcript you're working from by about five seconds but it is still close.

Martin's path was the shortest route to get back to where he was staying. If he took a shortcut between townhouses to get off the main road, then walked to the mail boxes next to the club house he would have passed Zimmerman just as Zimmerman told the operator "He's coming to check me out." at 19:10:50. Martin told his friend that he was taking shelter - probably under the mailbox structure - then talked to her about the "creepy ass cracker" watching him. He told her he was going to run and their call dropped before 19:12. Zimmerman said "He's running" at 19:11:40.

If we assume that Zimmerman was telling the dispatcher the truth as things happened up to that point, the timing works.

From the point Zimmerman could have seen Martin taking a shortcut between the townhouses to the stop sign in front of the club house is about 350' and another 75 to the mailboxes at an average walking speed of 4.4 feet per second (3 mph) it would have taken Martin about 80 seconds to travel to where Zimmerman says he stopped to make the call - in front of the club house. At 1 minute and 16-21 seconds after the beginning of Zimmerman's call, "he'd coming to check me out."

Martin was not "approaching Zimmerman" except that he had to pass Zimmerman's vehicle along his direct route home.

Martin was not hurrying. He'd taken over a half hour to walk the mile to the 7-11. He was talking to his friend, as she said "Just goofing." He may have slowed down, concerned about the truck he saw pass him that was now sitting in front of the club house. By the time Martin took shelter from the rain for a bit, he was beginning to be really worried about the intentions of the guy in that truck, so he ran (~2:06 or ~40 seconds after he passed Zimmerman).

Maybe before Martin ran Zimmerman cruised around the corner to keep an eye on the "suspicious character" and that triggered Martin's fear. If Zimmerman had done that, he would have been cutting Martin off from he safe haven - the townhouse where he was staying.

The real point is that Martin really didn't have time according the timeline of Zimmerman's call to Sanford PD to go out of his way to check out Zimmerman. He pretty much moved at a normal walking pace in order to arrive at the point where Zimmerman describes in his call when Zimmerman says he does. That part of their interaction is pretty set by Zimmerman's statements to the dispatcher and the times that the dispatcher entered information on his log.

Martin didn't even hang around under the mailbox shelter for long - it would have taken maybe 15 seconds for him to walk from Zimmerman's truck to the shelter, leaving less than 30 seconds for him to be under the shelter.

This is all from Zimmerman's call, accepting his words as truth. It also jibes with Rachel Jeantel's statements of what Martin told her over the phone.