Nutter calls Trayvon Martin's death an 'assassination'

As Philadelphia prepares for another demonstration over the shooting death in Florida of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Mayor Nutter on Sunday called the killing an "assassination."

Nutter also joined the increasing calls for the arrest of 28-year-old George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who fatally shot the unarmed Martin in February.

Nutter delivered his comments on MSNBC a day before the one-month anniversary of the shooting, which will be marked Monday night with a candlelight vigil in LOVE Park, the latest in a series of demonstrations in various U.S. cities.

Participants are encouraged to wear hooded sweatshirts, or hoodies, because Martin was wearing one when he was killed. A Million Hoodie March in Philadelphia on Friday attracted as many as 5,000 participants by some estimates.

"I've called this nothing short of an assassination," Nutter said in a nationally televised interview with MSNBC's Alex Witt, echoing earlier comments he had made in local television interviews.

"This individual Zimmerman followed Trayvon for some period of time. Trayvon was not doing anything . . . was not a threat based on all the information and evidence and 911 tapes that have been released," Nutter said.

On the recording of a 911 call Zimmerman made before the shooting, he tells the dispatcher a teenager - who he said looked like "a real suspicious guy" - had started running. The dispatcher asked Zimmerman whether he was following the young man. When he said he was, the dispatcher told Zimmerman not to.

"Clearly, Zimmerman was told not to continue any kind of pursuit," Nutter said on MSNBC. "In my view . . . he tracked him down. He followed him and then shot and killed him."

On at least one 911 call neighbors made, a male voice is crying in distress just before the fatal gunshot rings out. It is unclear who was crying out.

In an Inquirer interview Sunday, Nutter said he had not spoken to investigators in Sanford, the small town where the shooting occurred, or any other officials - including those in the U.S. Justice Department who are now probing the killing. He also said he had not spoken with any of Martin's relatives.

Nutter said he formed his opinions about the case based on the extensive media coverage. He also referred to a cellphone conversation between Martin and the young man's girlfriend during which Martin said a man was following him.

"If things went down the way it's been reported, then, I'll say again, that is tantamount to an assassination," Nutter said in the Inquirer interview.

On Feb. 26, Martin was walking back from a 7-Eleven store to his father's house in a gated community to watch a basketball game when Zimmerman followed and shot him.

Zimmerman has contended he fired in self-defense, relying on a Florida law that allows a person to "stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force," if he or she thinks death or bodily harm is imminent.

At the time of the shooting, Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles candy and a container of iced tea.

Public condemnation of how authorities in Florida have handled the case - they have not arrested Zimmerman - has been unrelenting.

Critics maintained that Martin's race - African American - played a factor in his shooting. Zimmerman's ethnic background is mixed; he has a white father and Hispanic mother.

Some of Zimmerman's friends have come to his defense, saying that he is not a racist and that he feared for his life that night. The neighborhood had been hit by a string of burglaries committed by young black males, according to media reports.

Nutter's comments underscore how much the case has enraged people.

In the Inquirer interview, Nutter said, "Clearly, there must be some seriously unanswered questions" if the Justice Department has initiated a probe, President Obama has spoken about the shooting, and thousands have demonstrated across the country.

"We need to know what happened. Why it happened. Why this individual has not yet been arrested," Nutter said on MSNBC. "Almost a month to the day of this incredible tragedy, he's still running around free, and Trayvon Martin is dead."

The Justice Department probe seeks, in part, to determine whether a hate crime was committed.

On one of Zimmerman's 911 calls to police the night of the shooting, he muttered something under his breath that to some sounded like a racial slur.

The uproar over the police handling of the case has forced the temporary resignation of the police chief in Sanford. The state attorney for Seminole County has also agreed to remove himself from the case.

"There was a young boy who was minding his business, a young African American male . . . good kid based on everything that we know, and this guy on his own shoots him down with no logic, no reason, and no response from the law enforcement officials down in Florida," Nutter said on MSNBC. "People are not going to stand for this."