Five days after a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman on all charges in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the slain teen's parents are speaking out publicly for the first time, letting the world know that they are "devastated" that the legal system did not provide justice for their son.
The parents of the late 17-year-old, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, made rounds on the top three TV network morning shows on Thursday where they described being in "shock" and "disgust" after learning that their son's killer was cleared from charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Zimmerman, a 29-year-old self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, claims that he shot the unarmed teen in self-defense back in February 2012. After Zimmerman spotted and followed Martin while he was walking in a gated community in Sanford, Florida, the two got into an altercation which ended when Zimmerman shot Martin with his firearm. A decision to clear Zimmerman of all charges by an all-female and predominantly white jury which has sparked protests around the country.
"I was stunned. Absolutely. I couldn't believe it," Sybrina Fulton told "CBS This Morning."
"I think people are forgetting that Trayvon was a teenager so he probably thought as a teenager," Fulton added. "I really do believe he was afraid because he did call George Zimmerman creepy. So he was afraid and if you are 17 years old and you are afraid, you may not know what to do."
"As parents understanding how they reached the verdict, I'll never grasp that concept," said Martin's father, Tracy Martin. "Just as loving parents and God-fearing people, we just continue to pray that whatever was in their heart was what they intended to do. But we didn't feel it was fair and, of course, it was devastating."
When asked on NBC's "Today" if he thought race was a factor in his son's death, Martin responded: "Obviously, any time you have a person that makes an assumption that a person is up to no good, there is some type of profiling. Was he racially profiled? I think that if Trayvon had been white, this wouldn't have ever happened. Obviously race is playing some type of role."
Fulton added the case is "sending a terrible message to other little black and brown boys -- that you can't walk fast, you can't walk slow. So what do they do? I mean, how do you get home without people knowing or either assuming that you're doing something wrong? Trayvon wasn't doing anything wrong."
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