Update II: George Zimmerman’s friend, who relays details to police regarding events of that night portrayed to him by Zimmerman which I discuss below, is not only one time Seminole County Deputy, but also a Federal Air Marshall.  This should be interesting…

Major Update: And this is why one needs to read things for themselves.  Apparently reports claiming TM”s gunshot wound was not a contact wound (i.e., the gun was not pressed to the chest or shirt) were wrong. On page 205 of the latest document dump the forensic results indicate a contact shot. So my comments below regarding the muzzle of the gun being away from the body are inaccurate (since I based on them on inaccurate reports).  Anyway, this does not help GZ. If (and now I have to question the conclusions of other reporting on the autopsy) the bullet’s trajectory is straight front to back and not at an upward angle, then GZ’s statements on when/how the gun was fired are still in doubt. Of course, if the bullet path does reflect a gun pointed upward from the waist into the chest, I will be back here eating a mighty pile of crow….

end update

It is sad to say this, but the concept of ‘critical thinking’ is now a rare talent in America. Too many accept information unconditionally, and then deny all clear evidence to the contrary once they are emotionally committed.

Critical thinking requires an individual to assess information in a manner that challenges all associated assumptions and conclusions. Believe nothing – challenge it all. It means you dig down on your own to determine the truthfulness of claims, instead of taking propaganda and PR at face value.

For example, when the New York Times runs a story claiming George Bush “bypassed FISA” to snoop on Americans, a critical thinking person looks at the details in the story and challenges the hidden assumptions and conclusions being spoon fed to the mindless masses to digest. In this manner, the critical thinker discovers that the entire New York Times story is a crock. A fiction crafted to hide reality: a liberal judge bent out of shape over actions taken post 9-11 to make sure no more Americans died horrible deaths here in the US because of out-dated, ill-conceived POLICIES that provided terrorists more protections within our borders than without. And thus the critical thinkers expose lies and deceptions being hoisted on the public.

And so it is with the George Zimmerman shooting of Trayvon Martin. So many people jumped to conclusions before the details were known, and now actively avoid critical assessment of the information just now coming out. Especially if it upends their initial conclusions.

My engineering/science background – acquired over 3 decades now – does not allow me to avoid the hard truths, or to ignore false claims. It is just not something I can (or will) change. So when you ask why I keep looking at this case, it is because I am a critical thinker who is challenging all the unfounded assumptions and conclusions.

So while the non-critical thinkers claim there is nothing new in each release of evidence in the Trayvon Martin case (as if closing one eyes really does make the world go away), the critical thinker spends time reviewing and assessing the information. If nothing more to cross check his conclusions to date to make sure they still hold, but also to see if there is additional  corroborating information that strengthens those earlier conclusions.

Sadly for George Zimmerman he has acted true to form as it pertains to my original assessment of him. I said early on, IF GZ was guilty, his guilt would be discovered because his on-the-spot-alibi would crumble under the weight of evidence and witness statements. I only said this because it was obvious – the liar would be caught in his web of deceit while the honest person would be vindicated as fact unfolded. I did not know then HOW GZ would be caught, just that the truth would win out.

As I read the more extensive interviews now available, I discovered two that really box GZ in because they attempt to provide support to those aspects of GZ’s testimony which are PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. Let me emphasize this again: some of GZ’s statements could simley be inaccurate (and he would still have self defense claim), but when his story about how he was in a life-and-death situation and had to save himself is proven IMPOSSIBLE, then he is going to be found guilty of Murder 2. He admits to the killing, so if the killing could not happen as he claims, he is lying and he is then going to go to jail for a long, long time.

So let’s recap what aspects of the story are not just inaccurate, but impossible. GZ claims he was pinned under Trayvon Martin – who was beating his head against concrete (this is simply inaccurate, there are no injuries to sustain this claim). Trayvon then notices GUZ’s concealed weapon (again inaccurate, since the gun was on GZ’s hip, trapped between the ground and his back).

So far bad, but not horrible. But GZ, in an effort to bolster his credibility makes the classic mistake of all bad liars. He attempts to add details to make it seem more realistic. But it this series of these details that make  GZ’s claim go from unlikely to impossible.

So let’s begin. As I noted in a previous post discussing the Video Reenactment performed the day after the killing, GZ demonstrates where he kept his holster.

Note this is around the back in the waistband of his pants. Also note the angle of his elbow when reaching to his gun. His elbow HAS to bend to reach his waist. You cannot reach your waist and pull upward (to pull a gun) without bending the elbow. It is physically impossible.

Not 10 seconds later in the reenactment, GZ adds one of his embellishments that make his story now impossible. He claims he has Trayvon Martin’s arm pinned to his side because Martin is going for his gun. Now look at his elbow and hand!

There is no way to pin an arm AND reach behind AND pull a gun from your waist band – because once the elbow bends to get to the gun you loose the pin on the arm.  This is Impossible Fiction 1.

I also noted in that prior post you cannot pull a gun from a holster on your back hip if you are on your back, pinned to the ground by someone ‘mounted’ on your stomach. This observation brought out a lot of fanciful thinking from GZ defenders. They created a series of mythological positions with TM standing over GZ, not sitting on GZ’s stomach pushing his back onto the ground.

It turns out GZ repeated this story many times after the shooting to friends and allies, and in the telling added more damning details.  And these details prove false the fantasies. Here is a snippet from Interview Record 52 (from this record of evidence, starting page 77 – click to enlarge):

This version of events was told to police by a very good friend of Zimmerman’s. The same friend GZ and his wife stayed with after the shooting. The same friend who went with his wife to pick up GZ the night of the incident and the same friend who is with GZ during the video reenactment. A man who was a Seminole County Deputy for 6 years. This is what he told police GZ told him. In this telling GZ is quite clear: TM was mounted on him with his butt on GZ’s stomach, knees on the ground next to his ribs. I have no doubt the man conveyed completely and accurately what GZ told him.

This means it would be impossible for GZ to ‘pin’ Trayvon’s arm to his side – TM’s knees are in the way.  This results in Impossible Fiction 2. It also means GZ cannot reach his gun to pull it out of the holster.  TM’s knees are in the way and GZ back is on the ground, the holster under a jacket. blocking access (ee the picture below as to why this is not possible):

This gives us Impossible Fiction 3.

But GZ is not done enhancing his lies. He changes the story slightly, from pinning TM’s arm in the video reenactment to swatting it away in the telling to the friend (or the friend’s telling to the police):

But that is not all that changes, there is one more tidbit that brings us to the big impossible fiction- the angle of the bullet:

Now this is one helluva detail for GZ to recollect – not to mention emphasize enough that it comes through one second-hand telling by GZ’s dear friend and also comes through in the synopsis of the police interview report. This detail had to been heavily emphasized in order for it  to make through these two different renditions. Thankfully GZ and his friend went to all this trouble, because it also creates a really big impossible fiction.

When laying on your back, with elbow on the ground, you are going to restrict the range of motion of the arm and thus the aim of a  gun in the hand. Let’s look at those elbows again, and see what range of aim is possible from your back with your elbow on the ground.

Those who are critical thinkers (and who know the bullet path in TM’s body) can see where this is going. Here is a representation of the bulletpath  according to the autopsy report (note: this is NOT an autopsy image or from the police, but someone’s reasonably accurate rendering of the details in the report). The bullet path indicates the gun was shot straight at TM’s chest (as if held straight out from a standing position).

Is this possible given this new detail about the elbow? Let’s overlay someone mounted on the prone body, sitting on the stomach, and check those firing angles again.

Nope, can’t happen. This is why GZ’s account is total fiction – not just inaccurate. From the ground a shot into the chest straight on is really not possible. Not mounted in the manner  GZ states many times in various interviews. And remember, GZ claims he wiggles down farther between TM’s legs to get off the pavement, only THEN he is able to pull the gun and shoot. So even this representation is not showing how badly GZ’s alibi stands up to the physics of the elbow and bullet trajectory. Physics can be unforgiving.

So this is Impossible Fiction 4- shooting TM from this position with elbow on ground. In this orientation I doubt you can get the proper angle at all given the distance the gun was fired from and the angle (gun was medium range, not  up against the chest).  There are probably some contorted positions, but they won’t match the ballistics residue on GZ or TIM, or the blood splatter patterns, or the path and distance of the muzzle, etc. I am not seeing how the shot happened as GZ claims. Such are the challenges of off-the-cuff alibis. It is hard to get all the physics and biology right.

Just a side note here. GZ definitely tried his alibi out on a few people right after the incident. And in doing so got himself into some serious perjury traps.  As we have heard before, GZ swears he did not leave his truck to follow TM. He only left it to find street signs or apartment numbers. But when he went to work the next day, he told his coworker a different story – one more consistent with the dispatcher call (fixed the link for enlarge):

This is petty damning. My guess is GZ wanted to convey more of him as cop-like figure in this telling. So instead of keeping with the safer excuse (he was trying to get oriented), GZ is clearly admitting here he is looking (hunting?) for TM. He first follows him in the car, and gets out of the car to find him on foot. GZ awkwardly lied to Sanford Police when he tried to change the reason why he was out of his car. BTW, GZ made the same mistake when he told his friend above – also stating clearly to him he left the car to find Martin. So that is two witnesses who confirm GZ was looking for TM, because GZ told them he was.

George Zimmerman is claiming his life was in danger and he was attacked. But the encounter he describes (or more accurately, he concocted) does not fit the evidence. He was not mounted after he was knocked to the ground at the T at the beginning of the altercation. There was an argument followed by some physical interactions that ranged over 40 feet with him and Martin on their feet at times. There are no life threatening head injuries. All we can confirm is GZ has broken nose and he landed on his ass in the wet grass.

That does not constitute life and death, and thus does not warrant deadly force.

The details of Zimmerman’s account are just not possible. Therefore he made them up, sprinkled here and there with a touch of reality (like it was dark out). But since his story is provable fiction, then his self defense claim is also fiction. His self defense claim lies on his account being true and accurate. Some people like to lean on ‘reasonable doubt’. Well when the story told by Zimmerman is fiction, beyond any doubt, then guess what.

You get a guilty charge on Murder 2.