Witness Says Trayvon Martin Was Aggressor

It appears that Trayvon Martin was the aggressor in the incident with community watch officer George Zimmerman.

MyFox-Tampa Bay reports:

ORLANDO - A witness we haven't heard from before paints a much different picture than we've seen so far of what happened the night 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed.

The night of that shooting, police say there was a witness who saw it all.

Our sister station, FOX 35 in Orlando, has spoken to that witness.

"The guy on the bottom who had a red sweater on was yelling to me: 'help, help…and I told him to stop and I was calling 911," he said.

Trayvon Martin was in a hoodie; Zimmerman was in red.

"When I got upstairs and looked down, the guy who was on top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point," John said.

Zimmerman says the shooting was self defense. According to information released on the Sanford city website, Zimmerman said he was going back to his SUV when he was attacked by the teen.

Sanford police say Zimmerman was bloody in his face and head, and the back of his shirt was wet and had grass stains, indicating a struggle took place before the shooting.

If the above is correct, Zimmerman appears to have acted in self-defense and the shooting was justified. That is, IF he had no other recourse.

There a doctrine called escalation of force used by the police, probation officers and security officers. This doctrine requires that non-lethal methods be used first, if available, and if the situation warrants it. For instance, if an officer (police or security) has pepper spray (or mace), that is used first. Then, the next degree of force is with a PR-24 or Asp baton. The last recourse is a firearm.

If Zimmerman was attacked by Martin as the witness states, he should have used pepper spray or a baton (if he had them on him) on Martin first. But if Martin was on top of Zimmerman and beating him, and those non-lethal weapons weren't available, then Zimmerman was justified. Especially, if Martin were trying to take Zimmerman's gun.

Still, it is tragic that a 17-year-old was killed. But, it may be that he was killed in self-defense. The investigation needs to be completed before we can say for certainty.