with early is this morning didn t make that clear. but what is clear is that this case was investigated a a very high level. at the highest level. we re talking a sunday night, after dinner time. the chief of police went to this the scene of the shooting, which in it of itself is unusual. but then there was a confrontation between the chief, the guy who s charged with supervising criminal investigation for the department, and according to this source, the state attorney, the guy who would eventually get this case from police and have ultimately recused himself because he wanted to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest. the high level at the decision not to arrest and not to charge zimmerman, that in it of itself is noteworthy. there s usually a special circumstance for that. it involves the shooting of a police officer, the shooting of a notable person. the whole world is wondering now, what about this particular crime? what about this incident, if it was not a crime?
captain robert o conner, the investigation supervisor who made the decision to release george zimmerman from those handcuffs on the night of february 26th after consulting with state attorney norman wofinger in person. the state attorney was there. it s not known whether that in-person meeting took place at the scene of the shooting or inside this police station that you re seeing right now where george zimmerman was questioned by police. we are joined now by abc news matt gutman, a reporter who obtaind this video of zimmerman on the night of the shooting. it first aired on abc world news tonight. matt, what do you see as the significance of this video in terms of helping us with the evidence of what happened here? it s the first time we see anything of zimmerman, lawrence, and it s quite remarkable.
disconnect between the police department and the prosecutors. we have the source that was telling us that it s simply impossible to get charges on anyone unless the state attorney figures that he had a slam dunk case, and that was clearly what happened here. obviously, this stand your ground law makes it very, very difficult for prosecutors to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that george zimmerman didn t feel threatened, lawrence. and that s really the operative term. as long as he had reason to believe and can prove that, that his life was threatened or he felt felt his life was threatened, this law entitles him essentially to use deadly force. you ve just ruined the night of every reporter on site. all you have to do is ask for it. that s not what the other reporters wanted to hear. i want to go to the 16-year-old girlfriend of trayvon martin who you also managed to interview. it s just a week or so that we ve known about her existence.
seems as if what might be happening here now, is it your sense that some of what is happening here is the sanford police department has had enough of being criticized about not going forward with charges here, and this actually, this video, helps focus attention on the decision that the state attorney made after the police actually recommended a prosecution? it seems so. it was rather, you know, simple to obtain. all they have to do is ask for it and wait a couple of days. the police were quite helpful. perhaps they want to get rid of this story and show they did do their due diligence. there was significant steps involved in the case as well. apparently zimmerman was never given a toxicology exam. they didn t interview witnesses, like the people we spoke to today, including trayvon s girlfriend who was on the phone with him seconds before he was shot. those people were never spoken to. clearly there was some
where we are nowing george zimmerman was taken. well, the source who i spoke with early is this morning didn t make that clear. but what is clear is that this case was investigated a a very high level. at the highest level. we re talking a sunday night, after dinner time. the chief of police went to this the scene of the shooting, which in it of itself is unusual. but then there was a confrontation between the chief, the guy who s charged with supervising criminal investigation for the department, and according to this source, the state attorney, the guy who would eventually get this case from police and have ultimately recused himself because he wanted to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest. the high level at the decision not to arrest and not to charge zimmerman, that in it of itself is noteworthy. there s usually a special circumstance for that. it involves the shooting of a police officer, the shooting of a notable person.