NBC News has announced that the parents of slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin — plus eyewitnesses to the crime and neighbors of Martin’s admitted shooter, neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman — will speak to Lester Holt on a special episode of Dateline to air Sunday, March 25
In addition to conducting the interviews, Holt spent time in Sanford, the community where the Feb. 26 shooting took place, and presents a comprehensive look at that fateful night’s events.
Excerpts of Holt’s interviews, provided by the network, follow:
###Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, about her son:
LESTER HOLT: Sybrina, what kind of hopes and dreams did he have?
SYBRINA FULTON: He loved sports. He dreamed of goin’ to college. He was lookin’ forward to graduatin’ from high school. He was lookin’ forward to his prom. He loved to go on vacations. So he loved to travel and he wanted to be a man and he was almost there.
### One eyewitness’s account of what she heard that night:
Eyewitness: We could hear some — like a child — whining, sounded very desperate, sounded kind of scary.
LESTER HOLT: It sounded like a child?
Eyewitness: It wasn’t like a crying sobbing boohoo, it was — definite a whine, a cry for — I want to say cry for help, but I didn’t hear the word “help.” Immediately after we heard the gunshot.
### A second eyewitness’s account of what she saw that night after she heard the gunshot:
Eyewitness 2: He (George Zimmerman) started walking back and forth like three times with his hand on the head. And kind of — he was walking like kind of confused, like, “What I did?” I mean, that’s the expression in his movement.
LESTER HOLT: Is it possible he was touching his head because he was injured?
Eyewitness 2: No. No, no, no, no touching like, “Oh my God.” No, it was like (sigh) like kind of like that.
LESTER HOLT: Like he was in shock?
Eyewitness 2: He was in shock.
### Frank Taafe, George Zimmerman’s neighbor, about George:
LESTER HOLT: What is your sense of George Zimmerman? What did you know about him and how would you describe him?
FRANK TAAFE: George is a very amiable, congenial man. He didn’t show up to our HOA meetings, you know, dressed out, like Charles Bronson or Rambo. And, you know, he was a very down to earth guy.
LESTER HOLT: Had he ever gotten aggressive with anyone?
FRANK TAAFE: George wasn’t an aggressive person. George was a cross between Barney Fife and Andy Mayberry. He wasn’t Rambo. He wasn’t Bernard Goetz, tryin’ to jump on a subway, lookin’ for trouble. He was not lookin’ for young, you know, African Americans with screwdrivers. That wasn’t George Zimmerman.
See the complete interviews on Dateline Sunday, March 25 at 7p/6c
Photo: Virginia Sherwood/NBC News
