Protest In Ft. Laud. As Trayvon Martin Family Ask Feds To Investigate
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Another protest over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin is scheduled to take place Monday in Fort Lauderdale. Organizers say the march will begin at 5:00 p.m. at Fort Lauderdale City Hall and will end at the BSO Public Safety Building.
The latest march comes just one day after 3,000 people filled the Bayfront Park Amphitheater in downtown Miami at a rally featuring Trayvon's parents, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, singer Betty White, former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning and singer Chaka Kahn, who wrote a song memorializing Martin.
Also Monday, the lawyer for Trayvon Martin's family told CBS News they'll file a formal request with the Justice Department asking whether Florida prosecutors have been negligent by not charging the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed their son.
The Martin family wants to know why the Florida state attorney Norm Wolfinger allegedly overruled the police who wanted to arrest George Zimmerman on the night of the shooting.
Wolfinger stepped down from the case last month. Special prosecutor Angela Corey, Wolfinger's replacement has been re-interviewing witnesses and examining evidence.
The case has sparked questions nationwide about whether race played a role in the killing. Zimmerman insists he shot Martin in self-defense after the teen attacked him inside a gated community in Sanford, Fla.
But Martin's relatives, including his brother, do not accept that story. "It's just baffling how people they just take his word for it as if that's exactly what happened and there's no question about it," Jahvaris Fulton told CBS4's Gio Benitez in an exclusive interview.
A newly released emergency dispatch recording offers more details into the shooting. The tape shows a second ambulance called to the scene of the shooting was called off, bringing the severity of Zimmerman's injuries into question. "You can cancel second rescue. Second patient is not gunshot," according to the dispatch call.
On "Geraldo at Large" Sunday night, Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton said she's confident Zimmerman will end up behind bars. "I just truly believe that they're still investigating but things have leaked out and I believe he's going to be arrested very soon."
The shooting of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26th has exploded into a national debate about racial profiling and self-defense laws.
The case has stirred marches and rallies around the nation, merited comment from President Barack Obama, led to the resignation of the Sanford police chief and brought scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice.
