Trayvon Martin Shooting to Get 2nd Look by DOJ, FBI

Family, critics say shooter George Zimmerman is being protected
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 20, 2012 5:11 AM CDT
Trayvon Martin Shooting to Get 2nd Look by DOJ, FBI
In this undated file family photo, Trayvon Martin poses for a family photo.   (AP Photo/Martin Family Photos, File)

Almost a month after the killing of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and Florida's Department of Law Enforcement have agreed to get involved, the Miami Herald reports. The agencies will probe the case amid accusations from the teen's family and civil rights leaders that the local police department manipulated its investigation so that its findings synced up with the story told by George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot Martin and has not been arrested.

Zimmerman told police that after he called police to report the "suspicious" Martin, he left his truck to look at a street sign and the teen attacked him from behind. He claims he shot Martin, with a handgun he was licensed to carry, in self-defense. However, witnesses say they heard a boy's wails immediately before the gunfire; police portrayed those wails as Zimmerman's. One witness says police ignored her phone calls, and the police chief has also been accused of lying to protect Zimmerman. Click for more on the incident. (More Trayvon Martin stories.)

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