George Zimmerman's dad says Travyon told his son, 'You're gonna die now'

By msnbc.com staff

On FOX Orlando Wednesday evening, Robert Zimmerman, the father of the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, said his son was the victim. He said that Martin told George Zimmerman, "You're gonna die now, or you're gonna die tonight."

“George was going to the store, and he saw someone in his community that he did not recognize as living there,” Robert Zimmerman, a retired judge, said. “Because there had been a lot of break-ins in the area, he thought that was suspicious that someone would not be walking on the street or the sidewalk, but they'd be walking right behind the townhomes.”

Robert Zimmerman said that his son, George Zimmerman, 28, then called a non-emergency number to report this stranger. He lost sight of the teen as he looked for an address to report to police, Robert Zimmerman told the FOX affiliate.

“It’s my understanding that at that point Trayvon Martin walked up to him, asked him, ‘Do you have a – beep – problem?’ George said ‘No, I don’t have a problem’.”

The elder Zimmerman said that as his son started to reach for his cell phone, Martin, 17, punched him in the nose, knocking the larger man to the pavement.

“Trayvon Martin got on top of him and just started beating him, in the face, in his nose, hitting his head on the concrete,” Robert Zimmerman said.

That’s when Martin spotted George Zimmerman’s gun, Robert Zimmerman said.

“Trayvon Martin said something to the effect of, ‘You're gonna die now,’ or ‘You're gonna die tonight,’ something to that effect.”

When the interviewer asked about Martin’s girlfriend, who said that he told her that he was being followed, Robert Zimmerman said he didn’t believe her.

He replied: “I don't believe she was on the phone with him, and I find it very strange with the publicity involved with this that all of the sudden, after three weeks, someone would remember that they were on the phone. I believe the FBI and others investigating this will find that that did not happen.”

The family of a 13-year-old witness told Al Sharpton Thursday morning a different perspective. Although he did not witness the shooting, he heard it and said that he heard crying and that when the gun went off, the whining ceased.

Zimmerman, a self-declared neighborhood watch volunteer, fatally shot Martin on Feb. 26 in what he called an act of self-defense. Within weeks, the story started drawing nationwide attention and Sanford, Fla. Police were accused of bungling the investigation for not arresting Zimmerman.

Zimmerman, meantime, is in hiding. His father told FOX Orlando that he is not doing well.