General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A couple of years ago, I was personally responsible for starting a lot of OPs on Zimmerman [View all]Tommy_Carcetti
(43,181 posts)I think he wanted to detain him for police so the police and the neighborhood could all give him an attaboy for addressing the crime issue.
Problem was, as his conduct both before and after the shooting indicates, he's an a) highly volatile person and b) not that smart.
He was already pissed off that evening because of both the fight he had with his wife and because he automatically assumed Trayvon was in his words "up to no good". Then Trayvon ran which pissed him off more. Then when somehow their paths crossed again, Trayvon resisted him and possibly punched him in the face in the process. If it was in fact Trayvon screaming for help (and I believe it was), I think that pushed Zimmerman over the edge and he simply snapped, as if Trayvon were someone insulting him on his Twitter page. Except him snapping here involved shooting a gun.
Never did it seem to cross Zimmerman's mind that even after he had left his car and come across Trayvon, he could have probably diffused the situation by identifying himself and calmly asking Trayvon if he was lost or something like that (even if he still thought Trayvon was "up to no good."