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Moments before George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, the black 17-year-old had him pinned to the ground, was beating him and had threatened to kill him, his father told an Orlando television station.

Robert Zimmerman, 64, of Lake Mary, told WOFL-Channel 35 that his son shot Trayvon only after the Miami Gardens teenager knocked him down with a single punch that broke his nose, then got on top of him and kept punching.

Trayvon also pounded Zimmerman's head onto a concrete sidewalk, Robert Zimmerman said, opening two gashes on the back of his head.

His account is very similar to what the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday in a story about the evidence Sanford police collected in the case.

"After nearly a minute of being beaten, George was trying to get off the concrete, trying to move with Trayvon on top of him into the grass. In doing so, his firearm was shown. Trayvon Martin said something to the effect of, 'You're going to die now,' or, 'You're going to die tonight,' At some point, George pulled his pistol and did what he did," Robert Zimmerman said.

A security camera video released to ABC News shows Sanford police walking a handcuffed George Zimmerman into their headquarters, but there are no visible injuries on his head or face.

He had been tended to at the scene by paramedics.

Trayvon was killed Feb. 26 in Zimmerman's mixed-race gated community in Sanford. Local police handcuffed Zimmerman and took him to police headquarters that night but opted not to arrest him. That has led to civil rights rallies across the country and launched a federal civil rights investigation.

Sanford police said they could not arrest Zimmerman because he claimed self-defense, that witnesses corroborated much of his account and that they found no probable cause to justify a charge of manslaughter.

Last week, Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor, Angela Corey, state attorney in Duval, Clay and Nassau counties. The case is now in her hands. She has not spelled out what she will do but has indicated she may make a decision about whether to arrest Zimmerman without empaneling a grand jury.

Zimmerman's father said his son is not a racist and that he is stunned by the amount of hatred he's heard from critics, who accuse his son of racial profiling and pursuing and killing Trayvon.

Robert Zimmerman said he and his family have gone into hiding.

"It's just amazing. Some people are being so hateful, and the people who are being so hateful know nothing about what happened," Robert Zimmerman said.

The screams for help heard in the background of one 911 tape, he said, are his son. Critics have said they were the cries of Trayvon, begging for his life.

Robert Zimmerman, a retired magistrate from Virginia, told WOFL that based on the evidence that he knows about, a judge would not sign an arrest warrantfor his son.

"If a law enforcement officer presented these facts to me and requested a warrant, it would absolutely be denied," he said.

The rest is here:
George Zimmerman's dad: My son fired only after Trayvon Martin th - Palm Beach Post