Wow !!! - 'Trayvon Martin: Before The World Heard The Cries' - Reuters [View all]

[WillyT]

Trayvon Martin: Before the world heard the cries
By Daniel Trotta - Reuters
SANFORD, Fla., April 3 | Tue Apr 3, 2012 2:21pm EDT

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(Reuters) - Tracy Martin had been looking for his son Trayvon since the night before. He went to bed figuring the teen must have gone to the movies and turned off his phone. When Trayvon still wasn't home in the morning, Martin called the police.

After a flurry of phone calls back and forth, an officer told him a police unit was on the way.

"So I went outside waiting for Trayvon to show up," Martin said.

Instead of one squad car with his son in the backseat, three vehicles pulled up: a police cruiser, an unmarked sedan and another official-looking car. Martin would discover the third car belonged to a chaplain.

It was not yet 8 in the morning, barely 12 hours since the shooting that took place about 100 yards away, and Martin was still unaware of the fate of his son.

The Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, 17, at the hands of George Zimmerman, 28, a neighborhood watch captain who said he acted in self-defense, has riveted the nation, largely because of race. Trayvon Martin was black. George Zimmerman is white and Hispanic.

For about 10 days, the story remained obscure. Television news from nearby Orlando aired a few segments. The Orlando Sentinel published two brief articles, and the twice-weekly Sanford Herald ran 213 words. Otherwise, there was media silence.

This is an account of what happened before everyone knew Trayvon Martin's name...

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More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/usa-florida-shooting-trayvon-idUSL2E8F31ZX20120403