NEW YORK (AP) — The parents of a black teenager shot to death by a Hispanic neighborhood watch captain in Florida told demonstrators in New York they will keep fighting to get justice for their son.
“My son did not deserve to die,” Tracy Martin said Wednesday after thanking the hundreds of people who participated in a march in the teenager’s memory.
Demonstrators chanting “we want arrests” converged on Manhattan’s Union Square for the Million Hoodie March.
Martin’s son, 17- year- old Trayvon Martin, was killed Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. He was returning to a gated community in the city after buying candy at a convenience store. He was unarmed and was wearing a hooded sweat shirt, called a hoodie.
The neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, has not been charged in the shooting. Zimmerman has said the teen attacked him and he shot him in selfdefense.
The demonstrators greeted the teen’s parents with “God bless you!”
Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, told the crowd: “My heart is in pain, but to see the support of all of you really makes a difference.”
The Florida shooting has ignited a furor against the police department of the Orlando suburb of 53,500 people, prompting rallies and a protest in Gov. Rick Scott’s office on Tuesday.
Sanford city commissioners on Wednesday voted 3-2 to express “no confidence” in Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. over the handling of the fatal shooting.
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