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Brother of Trayvon Martin’s Killer Maintains Shooting Was in Self-Defense

Robert Zimmerman Jr. insists that his brother, George, was the victim of a violent attack by the 17-year-old high school student.

By Jonathan P. Hicks

Posted: 03/30/2012 12:04 PM EDT

Filed Under National News, CNN, Trayvon Martin

The brother of George Zimmerman insists that medical records will provide conclusive evidence that a struggle occurred with Trayvon Martin that resulted in Zimmerman’s nose being broken before he shot and killed the 17-year-old student.

Robert Zimmerman Jr. spoke with CNN newsman Piers Morgan, asserting that his brother shot Trayvon in self-defense. He said that the teenager was in a rage and determined to kill George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot the unarmed high school student with his 9-millimeter handgun a month ago.

“He stopped someone from disarming him and shooting him,” Robert Zimmerman said about his brother. “George showed tremendous restraint."

He added that, according to George Zimmerman’s account, Trayvon was determined to take the gun and shoot the neighborhood watch volunteer.

George Zimmerman is insisting that he shot teenaged Trayvon in self-defense after the younger man attacked him. Trayvon was walking through a gated community in a suburb of Orlando, heading to the home of his father's fiancée. He was wearing a hoodie in the rain and carrying Skittles candy and a can of iced tea he had purchased from a nearby convenience store.

The shooter’s brother maintains that George Zimmerman was motivated by a desire to save his own life.

“He had taken control of his firearm,” Robert Zimmerman said. “He prevented his firearm from being taken from him and used against him. And that’s called saving your life.”

A surveillance video taken by the police department in Sanford, Florida, where the shooting took place, show George Zimmerman walking through the police station with no apparent signs of blood or injury. Many supporters of Trayvon Martin’s family insist that the video debunks George Zimmerman’s version of events.

His brother addressed that issue. “We're confident the medical records are going to explain all of George's medical history," Robert Zimmerman said. "His nose looks swollen in that video. I'm his brother.”

Meanwhile, the mortician who prepared Trayvon for burial said that his body showed no signs of any violent fight.

In fact, Richard Kurtz, the Miami funeral director, said that the body was clear of bruises, cuts or scrapes. He told CBS that Trayvon Martin’s body “looked perfectly normal to me when he came in. And the story does not make sense that he was in this type of scuffle or fight in anything we could see.”

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