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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTheories on how Zimmerman got his wounds?
It may be that Trayvon never hit Zimmerman at all. The single small wound on one finger, the fact that some experts say that there was no fighting going on for at least 40 seconds before the gunshot rang out--this may suggest a confrontation that was all on Zimmerman's end.
But if that's the case, how did he get his wounds? The wounds documented by his family physician the next day could have been self-inflicted, to give him an alibi.
However, he clearly had some wounds the night of the shooting--pics taken at the time and police and EMT reports verify this. The wounds were minor, but still present.
How did he get them? There's a few possibilities:
1) Trayvon inflicted them while either defending himself or attacking Zimmerman. But if that's the case, why is there only a single small wound on Trayvon's finger?
2) Zimmerman or a friend* inflicted them in the short time frame between the shot and the arrival of the police. But would there have been enough time for that (the police arrive in less than a minute after the shot), and wouldn't one of the many witnesses now looking out of their windows have seen this?
3) This one is pure speculation on my part. Some may remember the 1989 Charles Stuart murder case from Boston. A man killed his wife, and then blamed a black carjacker for the crime.
About a year later, another incident occurred in the Boston area. A young white man says he was attacked and mugged by two men, one black and one Latino. It turns out that the white man had raped and murdered a neighbor woman he had become obsessed with, but in her attempt to defend herself, she had inflicted some injuries on him. He needed to get them treated without raising suspicion, so he picked a fight with two tough looking guys on the street so they'd fight back and supply his alibi.
So--again, pure speculation--Zimmerman already had injuries from some other incident, and needing a way to explain them, picks a fight with Trayvon that gets out of hand.
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I think #1 or #2 are far more likely, but I can't answer the questions about them. Any thoughts or answers here?
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* I keep wondering how many of the witnesses knew Zimmerman. It seems like he went out of his way to meet neighbors and let them know that he was the local "Watch Captain." Were any witnesses asked or did they volunteer that they knew him? He told one witness to call his wife to tell her what happened, so that would presume the witness knew both Z and his wife. Someone also snapped a pic of the back of Zim's head before or shortly after the police arrived. So people who knew Z and may even have been his friends might have been on the scene almost immediately. Still, would they have had enough time to concoct evidence of an assault and not be witnessed by onlookers?
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Zim-Zim may have simply fallen over his own shoelaces.
JI7
(89,262 posts)didn't look like a guy who just minutes before was being beaten so badly he had to kill the person doing it before he was killed or ended up in diapers the rest of his life.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)The whole issue of the injuries is that they do not match the story he told in how they came to be, not the fact that they exist and that he got them during a physical altercation with Trayvon.
mainstreetonce
(4,178 posts)I think there was a small stone in the grass that cut his head. Trayvon may have taken one swing that caught his nose, but there is certainly nothing life threatening.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)Scrapped his head while getting out of his car. Or he could have slipped on the wet concrete prior to the altercation. And the broken nose, if there was one, could have been done the next day by a friend or his dad or brother. Was there Zimmerman's blood on Trayvon's hands? There should have been some of Zimmerman's DNA under his finger nails.
Warpy
(111,329 posts)against the order of the dispatcher to be supremely irrelevant.
Once he started to chase Martin on foot, he became just another punk with a bad attitude and a gun. If Martin fought back, he deserved everything he got. The SYG law was more on Martin's side. He was the innocent party in this case.
I have a feeling if Zimmerman ever goes on trial, this will be the tack the prosecution takes.
Hatchling
(2,323 posts)There is the video of him in the police station with no blood on his head. Then there is the cell phone pic with a cap on and blood running from under it allegedly taken at the scene of the crime by a friend. Then there are the photos taken by the doctor the next day with dried blood in the same pattern as seen in the baseball cap picture.
So if I have this right: it's bloody picture at the scene, clean scalp at the police station and then dried blood in same pattern as the first pic at the doctor's the next day.
Doesn't add up to me.
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)because he looked better at the station. I thought that I saw one scrape on his head briefly in the precinct video.
However, I didn't see any bandaging around his head.
It's possible that the scrapes began to bleed during the night as Z might have tossed and turned in his bed. You know that sometimes a wound opens with movement and can start healing with some foreign object in the wound, like a piece of cloth.
At least that's the only way I can understand it.
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)shimonitanegi
(114 posts)tells a lot, imho.
Also, Zimmerman was on the phone with someone right after he had suffered a severe beating from Martin.
s-cubed
(1,385 posts)No marks on Trayvon but Zimmy could have been hit pretty hard.
jmowreader
(50,562 posts)He jumped Trayvon Martin, and Martin turned around and smacked the taste out of his mouth...leading Zimmerman to pull a gun and kill Martin.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)received his injuries in a violent altercation of some sort with Trayvon Martin.
There are multiple witnesses who reported to 911 that the two men were engaged in a physical fight of some sort. And that's in real time. (As opposed to later statements that could be cooked.)
That there was a violent altercation of some sort seems beyond dispute.
Daalalou
(54 posts)I'm just trying to make sense of why Trayvon doesn't have anything other than one small abrasion on his hand, and what exactly were the wounds Zimmerman had the night of the killing.
A wrestling match between the two, maybe after T tackled Z as someone suggested above; or a single punch by Trayvon before Zimmerman pulls his gun, make a lot more sense than Trayvon pummeling Z MMA-style, or bashing his head against the concrete.
grok
(550 posts)I've had the misfortune of being attacked at a teen outdoor party by 2 guys and knocked to the ground. Won't get into details but I truly deserved it. And so didn't fight back.
Point is this the two guys kept on trying to punch my face but were frustrated by me blocking them with my arms. Me wrapping my legs to a handrail kept them from moving me into a more vulnerable position. Not sure how long it took but it was least a minute. Worst damage they did was that my ear was reddened and a couple sore arms.
The other guys weren't hurt either since all they hit was my arms. much softer than my head.