Civil rights leaders in the US pressured the authorities to make an arrest in the case of an unarmed black teenager shot to death by a neighborhood watch captain after declaring victory in getting federal and state officials to investigate.
The case has become a nationwide sensation and ignited a furor against the police department in the Orlando suburb of Sanford, where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot last month. It has prompted rallies around the state and a protest in Florida Governor Rick Scott’s office on Tuesday. The US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has said it is sending its community relations service this week to “address tension in the community.”
At a town hall meeting on Tuesday evening, officials from the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Nation of Islam urged residents to remain calm, but demanded a thorough investigation into the shooter, 28-year-old George Zimmerman.
Zimmerman has not been charged in the Feb. 26 shooting and has said he shot Martin, who was returning to a gated community after buying candy at a convenience store, in self-defense after Martin attacked him.
An online petition urging the local authorities to prosecute Zimmerman had drawn more than 700,000 signatures at Web site Change.org as of early on Wednesday.
Later the same day, Sanford city commissioners voted three to two to accept a “no confidence” motion over police chief Bill Lee Jr’s handling of the shooting.
The US Department of Justice has opened a civil rights probe into the shooting and prosecutor Norm Wolfinger said a grand jury would meet on April 10 to consider evidence in the case.
“We are pleased the Department of Justice has heeded our calls and agreed to investigate this outrageous case,” NAACP president Benjamin Jealous said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. “The rules of justice in this nation have failed when an innocent teenage boy can be shot to death by a vigilante and no arrest is made for weeks.”
Earlier on Tuesday, an attorney for Martin’s family revealed the teenager told his girlfriend just moments before he was killed that he was being followed.
Police said Zimmerman, who was found bleeding from his nose and the back of his head, told authorities he yelled for help before shooting Martin.
Zimmerman had a permit to carry a gun, but it was not required for his neighborhood watch patrol.
Authorities may be hamstrung by a state “Stand Your Ground” law that allows people to defend themselves with deadly force.
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