Friend Recounts Final Call With Trayvon Martin Before His Death
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S. Meltzer/PhotoLink/Thinkstock(SANFORD, Fla.) — In the last moments of his life, Trayvon Martin was being hounded by a strange man on a cellphone who ran after him, cornered him and confronted him, according to the teenage girl whose call logs show she was on the phone with the 17-year-old Florida high school student in the moments before neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot him dead.
Martin’s death on Feb. 26 has stirred national outrage and protests, partly prompting the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI to open an investigation into the case.
ABC News was there exclusively as the 16-year-old girl told Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump about the last terrifying moments of the teenager’s life.
“He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,” Martin’s friend said. “I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run.”
Eventually he would run, said the girl, thinking that he’d managed to escape. But suddenly the strange man was back, cornering Martin.
“Trayvon said, ‘What are you following me for?’ and the man said, ‘What are you doing here?’ Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn’t answer the phone,” she said.
Besides screams heard on 911 calls that night as Martin and Zimmerman scuffled, those were the last words Martin said.
Martin’s phone logs, also obtained exclusively by ABC News, show the conversation occurred five minutes before police first arrived on scene. The young woman’s parents asked that her name not be used, and that only an attorney could ask her questions.
Martin’s father Tracey Martin and mother Sybrina Fulton listened to the call along with ABC News.
“He knew he was being followed and tried to get away from the guy, and the guy still caught up with him,” Tracey Martin said. “And that’s the most disturbing part. He thought he had got away from the guy and the guy back-tracked for him.”
The teen was killed by Zimmerman while walking back to his father’s fiancé’s home after stepping out to buy Skittles and some iced tea during the NBA All-Star Game.
After weeks of relentless pressure, the Sanford, Fla., Police Department decided to release emergency and non-emergency calls placed during the incident.
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