2012: Trayvon Martin
Photo of Trayvon Martin, who dreamed of becoming a pilot, taken when he was at an aviation summer camp.
Source: Wikipedia
In February of 2012, Trayvon Martin, a seventeen-year-old African American teen was shot and killed by a neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman.
During the early evening of February 26, Trayvon walked from his father’s fiancée’s townhouse to the nearby 7-Eleven where he purchased a bag of skittles and an Arizona iced tea. On his return walk, he encountered George Zimmerman. Seeing the young Black teen in a dark gray hoodie, Zimmerman followed Trayvon in his truck and called the police reporting that the teen looked “real suspicious” and erroneously claimed on the phone call a connection to recent thefts and loitering within the neighborhood.
Despite the police dispatch on the phone advising Zimmerman not to follow the teen, he continued, eventually chasing Trayvon down when the teen ran from the truck and taking it upon himself to apprehend him. In the struggle that ensued when Zimmerman attempted to detain Trayvon, Zimmerman shot and killed the high schooler.
When the police arrived on the scene at 7:17 p.m., George Zimmerman had minor injuries and Trayvon Martin was unresponsive and lying face down in the grass after having been shot in the chest at close range. After failed attempts to resuscitate the teen, the paramedics declared Trayvon Martin dead at 7:30 p.m. Zimmerman strenuously defended his actions as self-defense and was eventually acquitted for murder in 2013.
The incident and trial garnered national attention sparking outrage at so-called stand-your-ground laws, racial profiling, and law enforcement’s systemic disparaging of Black persons and Black narratives of events.
President Barrack Obama responded to the events attempting to draw a connection between the tragedy and the universal compassion of parents: “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon” (Williams 2012, p. 1). A year after Zimmerman’s acquittal, another Black teen’s death would similarly stir public reaction and indignation, especially in the St. Louis area.