Here we have Barney Fife with a loaded gun wanting to be a hero.
Then you have a kid walking home from the store with a pop and skittles under his coat, being followed by a this guy. The kid has heard the stories of kidnappings, rape and killings. He doesn’t know this dude, and Barney Fife doesn’t tell the kid who he is! (nor should the kid trust him, if he did!)
What is a 17 year old young man gonna do? What would you have done at 17 with some Chaz Bono lookalike following you around, acting weird? Call for help? Run? What if Chaz tackles you, what would you have done? Maybe try to drive his nose up into his skull?
I don’t think Zimmerman wanted to kill an innocent kid. I bet he is horrified. He wanted to be a Hero. He was trying to protect his neighborhood. The kid was just trying to protect himself from assumed assault.
This isn’t about race. It is about an uneducated, untrained person ignoring the rules and making some deadly mistakes. The cops even told Zimmerman NOT TO FOLLOW the ‘guy’. This is in fact one of the scenerios many law enforcement academies practice with their trainees.
I am sad for both families. This is truly a tragedy.
You’re doing a whole lot of guesswork in your hypothetical scenario.
I’m glad criminal law doesn’t turn on what you “think” happened.