Nope.
As the story goes, Zimmerman saw Trayvon not hurting anyone, grabbed his gun and started following him. As far as I'm concerned the story ends there; that's all I need to know. He made a catastrophically stupid decision that resulted in the death of a teenager. We should at least be talking about recklessness.
I'm no longer angry about this so I think I can talk about it with a level head
Sorry, but that's actually where the story begins, not where it ends. The fact that Zimmerman got out of his truck isn't really relevant to the case, especially when you consider the fact that witnesses testified they saw Martin peeping in random windows as he passed by various houses. That neighborhood had been experiencing problems with robbery and theft. Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch and he was well within his right to investigate when he saw an unfamiliar individual; in fact, it was his duty to investigate.
Should he have called the cops and kept driving? Probably. Was he frustrated with the local police's inability to be effective in that neighborhood? Almost certainly, according to testimony.
It got out of hand when Martin attacked Zimmerman and started slamming his head on the concrete. At that point Zimmerman shot Martin and may have taken it too far, but again, he was within his legal right to use deadly force to defend his own life. Even the jurors are saying they truly believed Zimmerman feared for his life during the assault (I heard it in the interview CNN did with one of the jurors earlier today.)
Aside from the events themselves, let's talk about background.
All accounts of Zimmerman before the shooting showed him to be a stand-up decent guy. Many people have come out and said that he was always a very helpful and nice individual. The jurors have also apparently said that, based on testimony from friends and neighbors, they did not believe the prosecution's play about Zimmerman being an out of control 'wannabe vigilante cop.' It was simply a legal tactic based on hearsay that was used in an attempt to discredit Zimmerman.
On the other hand, accounts of Martin before the shooting show that he was not such a stand-up guy. He had problems in school including fighting and dealing drugs. He had also been in trouble for sending aggressive/threatening texts. All of this is public record, not media speculation. There are now reports that stolen property was found inside his locker but I can't confirm that. The content of his social media (public photos of himself posing with guns, doing drugs, etc.) don't help my perception of what kind of person he was.
All of these things are relevant to the case whether you like it or not because they establish the character and credibility of the parties involved.
It's sad that Martin is dead. I wouldn't necessarily call it a tragedy because his own actions are ultimately what lead to his death. Instead of peeping in windows of random houses and acting in a suspicious manner, he could have just went home. Instead of running away/hiding/attacking when Zimmerman was approaching him, he could have simply stopped walking and said "hey man, can I help you?" Instead, he chose to take the aggressive route and attacked Zimmerman. That is the only relevant piece of information. People speculate that he ran because he knew Zimmerman had a gun, and Zimmerman said he tried to grab the gun, but there was no evidence (neither DNA/fingerprints on the gun itself nor eye-witness accounts) to support either claim.
As has been said before, they both could have just gone home and none of this would have happened. But they didn't, and here we are
