Community Prayer Service Held For Trayvon Martin
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A prayer service was held for Trayvon Martin's family just weeks before George Zimmerman, the teenager's alleged killer, goes on trial in Sanford.
"Maybe you can't make it up to Sandford but prayer can be there," said the pastor. "Pray for the judge, the jury and the family."
Trayvon Martin's parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin were surrounded by hundreds of supporters at the Bethel Apostolic Temple in Miami on Saturday afternoon.
"You don't understand how this will help us to go on," said Fulton. "You don't even realize how you just being here has blessed us so."
The "Community Program of Peace, Justice and Prayer" was organized by the Trayvon Martin Foundation, a foundation that aims at bringing awareness to raise awareness of how violent crime impacts the families of victims and to provide support for those families.
Also, the foundation aims to increase public awareness of forms of racial, ethnic and gender profiling as well as educate youth on conflict resolution techniques to reduce violence during confrontation.
"My heart is hurting but I know that god will work this out," said Fulton.
Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, FL in February of 2012. George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, is charged with second degree murder in his death. The Martin family argues Trayvon was racially profiled, pursued and killed. Zimmerman claims he shot Trayvon in self-defense after being attacked.
"Were trying to prevent any more Trayvon Martins," said the family attorney Benjamin Crump.
During the service, the Martin family attorneys said that Trayvon's death and how police handled the case made his death a civil rights issue.
"If the killer is exonerated there's going to be a precedent set that there are some people you can kill in America," said Crump. "Or there's going to be a precedent set to show how far we have come...Equal justice applies to everybody."
The Martins will head to Sanford for the trial on June 10th.
"Ask god to give us the strength to climb that mountain," said Trayvon's father Tracy Martin. "We know justice for Trayvon is going to be a rough road, we'll have to sit through negativity, but we know we have family and friends and prayers from pastors."
