No Regrets: Zimmerman Calls Martin Shooting God’s Plan in First Interview
In his first major televised interview Wednesday evening, Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman told Fox News channel’s Sean Hannity that he does not regret the events of that fateful night, calling it “all God’s plan.” Zimmerman used the interview as an opportunity to provide his version of what happened in the critical moments leading up to Trayvon’s shooting. However, when asked by Hannity whether he held any lingering regrets about carrying a gun that night or getting out of his car, Zimmerman confidently replied, “no.”
When asked what he would tell Trayvon’s parents, he said, “I’m sorry,” adding that he is open to meeting with them. “I’m not a racist and I’m not a murderer,” Zimmerman told Hannity when asked what he wanted people to know about the case.
Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 26 death of the 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. He has pleaded not guilty, saying he shot the teenager in self-defense. He invoked Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows citizens to use deadly force against another person if they consider themselves to be in danger.
During the interview he also addressed claims that he molested a female cousin.
Separately, the lawyer for the shooter of Trayvon Martin says he had no previous knowledge his client had collected money from an Internet site that was offering support.
Earlier this week, the Miami Herald reported that one of the recordings released by the prosecutors of George Zimmerman indicated the shooter had told a friend that his lawyer, Mark O’Mara, knew $37,000 was being transferred from one account to another.
O’Mara has long maintained he was unaware of the $130,000 that had been sent to Zimmerman’s website. It was a contention he has repeated for some time. The recordings, which were made when Zimmerman was in jail, offer a different point of view from O’Mara’s client.
“I told him I didn’t think that would be possible because there was one sizable transfer I tried to make,” Mr. Zimmerman said, in the recorded conversation, speaking to a friend. He added, “You know, $37.”
Zimmerman was freed on $150,000 bond after his wife claimed that she and her husband were destitute. However, the prosecutors later discovered that the Zimmermans had received more than $130,000 from his legal defense site. Zimmerman was ordered to return to jail and was later released on $1 million bond.
Prosecutors in the case, as well as Trayvon’s parents and their lawyers, have contended that the teenager was racially profiled by Zimmerman. Trayvon was Black. Zimmerman’s father is white and his mother is Peruvian.
