ForeverMissed
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His Life

Trayon's Story

May 17, 2015

Trayvon Benjamin Martin was a 17-year-old African American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in Sanford, Florida. Martin had gone with his father on a visit to his father's fiancée at her townhouse in Sanford. On the evening of February 26, Martin went to a convenience store and purchased a pack of skittles and Arizona Iced Tea. As Martin returned from the store, he walked through a neighborhood that had been victimized by robberies several times that year. Zimmerman, a member of the community watch, spotted him and assumed that he was up to no good and called the Sanford Police to report him. Although Zimmerman was instructed to stay away from Martin, he disobeyed his orders followed Martin on foot to ensure that Martin would not try to steal anything from the neighborhood. Moments later, there was an altercation between the two individuals in which Martin was shot in the chest. Zimmerman was not charged at the time of the shooting by the Sanford Police, who said that there was no evidence to refute his claim of self-defense and that Florida's stand your ground law prohibited law-enforcement officials from arresting or charging him. Zimmerman was eventually charged and tried in Martin's death and a jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder and of manslaughter in July 2013