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George Zimmerman will not face federal civil-rights charges in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday, citing a lack of evidence.

In a prepared statement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said FBI agents and DOJ attorneys simply could not build a successful case that Zimmerman was motivated by race when he killed the Miami Gardens teenager Feb. 26, 2012.

Even so, Holder said, Trayvon's death requires that "we continue the dialogue and be unafraid of confronting the issues and tensions his passing brought to the surface."

The outcome came as no surprise to lawyers and people familiar with the case. It was met with resignation by Trayvon's family and prominent supporters.

Francis Oliver, founder of the Goldsboro Westside Historical Museum in Sanford, which houses a memorial for Trayvon, said the decision included "nothing that's surprising to us."

No local protests were planned, she said.

"We're not going to do anything to glorify George Zimmerman," she said. "As far as we're concerned, he doesn't exist. He's a character that we just have closed the book on."

Feds: We studied state case

In the spring of 2012, Trayvon's shooting became a civil-rights cause clbre.

Sanford police investigated but did not initially arrest Zimmerman, something that led to rallies and brought Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the national president of the NAACP to Sanford.

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George Zimmerman will not face civil rights charges in ...

The Justice Department will not file civil rights charges against George Zimmerman, a Florida neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. (Reuters)

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that George Zimmerman will not face federal criminal civil rights charges for shooting and killing teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012.

Zimmerman fatally shot Martin while the unarmed African American 17-year-old was walking in Sanford, Fla. The shooting became a national flashpoint, sparking a discussion of race relations that continues to reverberate since the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and other incidents across the country.

The death of Trayvon Martin was a devastating tragedy, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement. It shook an entire community, drew the attention of millions across the nation, and sparked a painful but necessary dialogue throughout the country.

As a result of the announcement Tuesday, the federal investigation into the shooting has been closed.

Holder said that the comprehensive examination determined that there was not enough evidence for a federal hate crime prosecution. But he addedthat Martins premature death necessitates that we continue the dialogue and be unafraid of confronting the issues and tensions his passing brought to the surface.

Martins familysaid in a statement that they were disappointed with the findings, but thanked the people who offered prayer and other support over the years.

We remain poised to do everything in our power to help eradicate senseless violence in our communities, because we dont want any other parent to experience the unexplainable loss we have endured, Martinsfamily said. We will never, ever forget what happened to our son, Trayvon, and will honor his memory by working tirelessly to make the world a better place.

His family also thanked the Justice Department for the extensive and thorough investigation into the killing of our son. A Martin family attorney confirmed that representatives of the family met with JusticeDepartmentofficials on Tuesday to be told about the decision. They were also joined by officials from the FBI.

The decision was not unexpected, as three law enforcement officials told The Washington Postlast fall that Zimmerman was not expected to facecharges. It was announced two days before the third anniversary of Martins death and almost three weeks after what would have been Martins 20th birthday.

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George Zimmerman wont face civil rights charges in Trayvon Martins death

MIAMI The Justice Department's decision to not prosecute a civilian neighborhood watch volunteer for a hate crime in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager is not necessarily a harbinger of how it will rule in two other high-profile deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police officers, legal experts say.

That is because the standards used to gauge the existence of a hate crime committed by civilians are different from those used to measure the behavior of police officers, who can be charged with depriving someone of their civil rights by using excessive force in the course of duty.

Because George Zimmerman was not a police officer, the U.S. Justice Department could only prosecute him for fatally shooting teenager Trayvon Martin nearly three years ago if it had sufficient evidence the killing was motivated by racial bias or hatred, the experts say.

Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, without any legal authority associated with law enforcement officers. Zimmerman claimed he shot the 17-year-old Martin in self-defense, and he was acquitted by a jury in July 2013 of second-degree murder.

If he had been a sworn officer, federal prosecutors would have the option of pursuing "color of law" charges against Zimmerman. It is this kind of federal case that could be brought against officers in recent contentious killings by white police officers of black suspects Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York.

Those cases are also hard to prove; police officers are given latitude to use deadly force if they feel their lives are endangered.

"In the case of a police officer, what you're looking at is, did the police officer use excessive force that resulted in a death or injury or something else? It's not what a reasonable person would do. It's what a reasonable police officer would do under the circumstances," said David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who handled civil right cases.

"For a private citizen, it is a hate crime, which has to be motivated by race," he added. "Zimmerman may have wanted to be a police officer at some point in time, but he wasn't then and he isn't now."

St. Louis community activist John Gaskins, a member of the NAACP's national board of directors, said he wasn't surprised by the decision to not charge Zimmerman federally in Martin's death. But he said "this doesn't give me much hope" that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will be indicted.

"It's not encouraging to see that George Zimmerman was not indicted," Gaskins said.

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Without hate crime, US limited in prosecuting George Zimmerman

George Zimmerman will not face federal civil-rights charges in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday, citing a lack of evidence.

In a prepared statement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said FBI agents and DOJ attorneys simply could not build a successful case that Zimmerman was motivated by race when he killed the Miami Gardens teenager Feb. 26, 2012.

Even so, Holder said, Trayvon's death requires that "we continue the dialogue and be unafraid of confronting the issues and tensions his passing brought to the surface."

The outcome came as no surprise to lawyers and people familiar with the case. It was met with resignation by Trayvon's family and prominent supporters.

Francis Oliver, founder of the Goldsboro Westside Historical Museum in Sanford, which houses a memorial for Trayvon, said the decision included "nothing that's surprising to us."

No local protests were planned, she said.

"We're not going to do anything to glorify George Zimmerman," she said. "As far as we're concerned, he doesn't exist. He's a character that we just have closed the book on."

Feds: We studied state case

In the spring of 2012, Trayvon's shooting became a civil-rights cause clbre.

Sanford police investigated but did not initially arrest Zimmerman, something that led to rallies and brought Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the national president of the NAACP to Sanford.

More:
George Zimmerman will not face federal charges in Trayvon Martin shooting

George Zimmerman (pic) won't face US federal charges over the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

George Zimmerman, the former neighbourhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in a 2012 confrontation with the teenager, will not face US federal charges.

The Justice Department's decision resolves a case that focused public attention on self-defence gun laws and became a flashpoint in the national conversation about race two years before the Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting of a black man.

Zimmerman has maintained that he acted in self defence when he shot the 17-year-old Martin during a confrontation inside a gated community in Sanford in Florida.

Martin, who was black, was unarmed when he was killed. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.

Once Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder by a state jury in July 2013, Martin's family turned to the federal investigation in final hopes that he would be held accountable for the shooting.

That probe focused on whether the killing could be charged as a federal hate crime and on whether Zimmerman wilfully deprived Martin of his civil rights, a difficult legal standard to meet.

But Justice Department officials said they ultimately determined there was insufficient evidence to prove Zimmerman killed the teenager on account of his race.

"Our decision not to pursue federal charges does not condone the shooting that resulted in the death of Trayvon Martin and is based solely on the high legal standard applicable to these cases," Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department's top civil rights official, said in a statement announcing the decision.

Martin's parents were too distraught after their meeting in Miami with Justice Department officials to speak with reporters, said their lawyer Ben Crump, who called the decision a "bitter pill to swallow" even though it was expected.

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No charges in Trayvon Martin death in US