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ABOVE PHOTO: This Feb. 26, 2012 photo released by the State Attorney’s Office shows what appears to be the body of Trayvon Martin under a yellow tarp after he was shot by George Zimmerman. The photo and reports were among evidence released by prosecutors that also includes calls to police, video and numerous other documents. The package was received by defense lawyers earlier this week and released to the media on Thursday.
(AP Photo/State Attorney’s Office)
Florida teenager Trayvon Martin died from a single gunshot wound to the chest fired from “intermediate range,” according to an autopsy report reviewed Wednesday by NBC News.
The official report, prepared by the medical examiner in Volusia County, Fla., also found that the 17-year-old had one other fresh injury – a small abrasion, no more than a quarter-inch in size – on his left ring finger below the knuckle.
Separately, a medical report on Martin’s alleged killer, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, prepared by his personal physician the day after Martin’s shooting in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, found that the Neighborhood Watch volunteer suffered a likely broken nose, swelling, two black eyes and cuts to the scalp.
Both documents are part of a mountain of evidence – up to 300 pages and 67 CDs of witness statements, surveillance videos and other material– expected to be made public soon in connection with the second-degree murder case against Zimmerman.
Zimmerman allegedly shot Martin during a confrontation inside the gated community in Sanford where Zimmerman was a neighborhood volunteer and where Martin was visiting his father’s fiancée. After first reporting a suspicious person in the neighborhood in a phone call to Sanford police, Zimmerman followed the teenager before a fatal confrontation that remains shrouded in mystery.
When police arrived at the scene to find Martin dead on the sidewalk, Zimmerman claimed he shot the teen in self-defense. Zimmerman was treated at the scene for cuts and a bloody nose, then questioned by police for hours before being released without being arrested. Authorities said at the time that they had no evidence challenging Zimmerman’s account and that his conduct appeared to be justified under Florida’s so-called Stand Your Ground law.
But after questions about possible racial motivation for the slaying – Martin was black; Zimmerman is a white man of Hispanic heritage – a special prosecutor took over the case and, on April 11, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder. He was released on April 23 on a $150,000 bond and has been out of the public eye since then.
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