Myth Busters: Did Zimmerman “Chase Down” a Fleeing Martin?By Andrew Branca, Attorney at Law
June 18th, 2013
One of the enduring myths of the falsified public narrative promulgated by the State prosecutors and other anti-Zimmerman zealots has been that George Zimmerman “chased down” a frightened Trayvon Martin who was simply attempting to secure the safety of his destination (his father’s girlfriend’s home in at the Retreat at Twin Lakes neighborhood.
Is that what really happened? Or is George Zimmerman’s recounting more credible and consistent with the facts in evidence?
Let’s take a look at what the facts in evidence, the timeline, and the terrain tell us.
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So, given that Martin had 2 full minutes to cover 400 feet to safety, how close to safety might he have gotten? It all depends on his speed. Using myself as a stand-in I dug my sneakers out of the back of the closet, knocked the spiders out of it, and laced up. The goal was to see how much distance I could cover in 2 minutes–certainly Martin would not have been limited to less than that in retreating in fear from a frightening pursuer
Test 1: ”Old-man jog”: I set my iPhone for two minutes, and set off down my street (nice and straight for these purposes). After 2 minutes I had covered: 1,260 feet.
Well, wait a minute. Surely if I could cover a full quarter-mile in 2 minutes Martin must have been able to cover 400 feet.
Perhaps Martin was not running the whole time, perhaps after a quick dash around the corner he proceeded at a swift walk.
Test 2: ”Swift walk: I reset my iPhone and set off briskly. When the timer went off after 2 minutes I had covered: 750 feet.
Wow, still almost twice as much ground as Martin needed to gain safety from the pursuing Zimmerman. But maybe Martin wasn’t walking swiftly. Maybe the fear instilled by Zimmerman’s pursuit was only sufficient incentive to motivate him to move at the speed of, say, a 48-year-old pushing a 2-year-old in a stroller.
Test 3: ”Stroller walk”: I buckled my two-year-old into her cheap umbrella stroller (not jogging stroller), reset my iPhone to 2 minutes, and set off. When the phone alarmed I had covered: 575 feet.
Five-hundred and seventy-five feet pushing a 2-year-old-laden stroller. Yet somehow Martin was not able to cover 400 feet to safety before Zimmerman fell upon him.
Another thought–even if Martin had for whatever reason not managed to make it all the way to his refuge, surely he would have been many yard down that path. Instead, we know he was barely around the corner in the direction of his destination.
This suggests not someone fleeing danger.
Rather, it is consistent with someone who obtained a position of concealment, waited for his unsuspecting victim to approach, then sprung from hiding to launch his attack. And unlike the myth that Zimmerman pursued a fleeing Martin, this scenario is actually supported by the facts in evidence.
Incidentally, this also generally destroys the myth of Zimmerman following Martin in any way that could have caused Martin to be in fear. Zimmerman did not exit his car until Martin had turned the corner. Were Martin fleeing, or even walking, away he would have been at least 150 feet past the corner, the same distance that Zimmerman had to cover from his parked to reach the corner. We now know, of course, that Martin went nowhere much after turning the corner.
In the meantime, after Zimmerman lost sight of Martin at the point he tells the dispatcher “He’s running,” he doesn’t see Martin again until Martin emerges from the bushes. Can you be “following” someone you don’t even see?
Food for thought.
And looks to me like this myth is . . . BUSTED!....more at linkhttp://lawofselfdefense.com/zimmerman-t ... ng-martin/
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