(CNN) — Jurors got to hear George Zimmerman’s story in his own words for the first time Monday as his interviews with police were played in court.The former neighborhood watch captain is charged with second-degree murder for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012. Zimmerman told police he was pursuing the teenager because there had been a rash of crime in the area. A confrontation ensued, and Zimmerman said he was forced to kill Martin.
“I tried to defend myself,” Zimmerman said during his first police interview the night of the shooting. “He just started punching me in the face, and I started screaming for help. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe.”
Tape of Zimmerman’s retelling of the confrontation between him and Martin could bolster the defense’s key contention: that Zimmerman reacted in self-defense.
Zimmerman began his interview with investigator Doris Singleton by saying that there had been a lot of crime in the area and that he had started a neighborhood watch program. He said he spotted Martin, whom he thought looked suspicious, and began to follow him.
At some point, Martin circled Zimmerman’s car as he followed him through the neighborhood, Zimmerman said, then the teenager disappeared into the “darkness.”
“The dispatcher told me ‘Where are you?’ and I said ‘I am trying to find out where he went,’ and he said, ‘We don’t need you to do that,’ and I said ‘OK,’ ” Zimmerman told the investigator.
Zimmerman then started to head back to his car, he said, but never got there.
“(Martin) jumped out from the bushes, and he said, ‘What the (expletive) is your problem, homie?’ And I got my cell phone out to call 911 this time, and I said, ‘I don’t have a problem.’ And he goes, ‘Now you have a problem,’ and he punched me in the nose,” Zimmerman told the investigator.
Zimmerman said the blow knocked him to the ground, and Martin got on top of him.
“He puts his hand on my nose and my mouth, and he says ‘You are going to die tonight,’ ” said Zimmerman. “As he banged my head again, I just pulled out my firearm and shot him… He is mounted on top of me, and I just shot him, and he falls off. And he’s, like, ‘Alright you got it, you got it.’ “
Thanks! I wasn’t aware of this. I must pay more attention. lol. That was Zimmerman’s side of the story. I thought it would have been on the cell phone when someone was screaming.
This is unabridged from the testimony right?