Following somebody is not a "provocation". That's what you don't seem to understand about this case. And the conversation with the dispatcher is meaningless. The Dispatcher told Zimmerman he didn't have to follow Martin because dispatcher's have to be very careful regarding liability. Following a suspicious character in inherently dangerous. If you tell a dispatcher you are about to do something potentially dangerous (no matter how lawful it might be) they are always going tell you that you don't need to do that else it could be construed by a clever plaintiff's attorney after the fact that the police instructed their client to something that led to their client's injury or death.
Martin's conversation with the dispatcher is utterly irrelevant to this case. All it does is establish facts that Zimmerman himself testified to once the police showed up and sheds no light whatsoever on what happened once Zimmerman and Martin came face to face (which is the crux of the case in terms of whether a crime was committed by Zimmerman).
Florida:
Armed man approaches neighbor to complain about barking dogs.
Argument ensues.
Argument escalates until man with dogs started "threatening him (armed man) and made a movement as if he had a weapon".
Armed man shoots and kills man with dogs.
No justification, charged with second degree murder.
Former Jackman man killed in Florida during argument about barking dog
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/...lorida-during-argument-about-barking-dog.html
by erin rhoda Staff Writer
A man who grew up in Jackman was shot to death in Florida two weeks ago, and the man accused of killing him told police they were arguing about a barking dog.
Family and friends are mourning the death of Dana A. Mulhall, 52, who graduated from Forest Hills Consolidated School in 1977. His neighbor in Florida, 65-year-old Paul Miller, of Flagler Beach, faces one charge of second degree murder in the March 14 shooting.
On Monday, Mulhall’s mother, Angela Mulhall, 75, of Moose River Plantation, spoke about the loss of her son, who ran his own landscaping business in Florida and called the mayor of Flagler Beach a friend.
“I don’t know how we’ve survived going through this on a daily basis. I don’t know where we find the strength, but we always do, somewhere, somehow,” she said.
Dan Cody, police chief of the Flagler Beach Police Department, said Monday in a phone interview that Miller gave the following account of the incident: He was sitting on his porch when Mulhall came home and complained about Miller’s barking dog. Miller went inside, got his 9 mm gun and stuck it in his pocket.
Then Miller walked to the approximately three-foot-high fence between them, where they argued. Miller told police that Mulhall was threatening him and made a movement as if he had a weapon.
“Mr. Miller felt like he had a weapon from the gestures he was making, and he shot him at that time,” Cody said.
Miller fired three shots— to Mulhall’s chest and legs. When Mulhall turned to run, Miller shot him twice on the back of his body, Cody said, though he didn’t know precisely where. Mulhall died at the scene and police did not find a weapon on him
A pretzel can be a deadly weapon. Just ask George W. Bush. It's just typically not a deadly weapon. The "idiot" is the person who thinks that just because something happens a certain way on occasion that's somehow the rule. Fist fights are not typically charged as aggravated assaults for a reason. That's because typically they don't result in death.
