George Zimmerman said the parents of Trayvon Martin “didn’t raise their son right,” also calling the Black Lives Matter movement a “fraudulent, violent campaign” in a loaded interview with The Daily Beast published Tuesday.
Zimmerman, who fatally shot 17-year-old Martin in February 2012 and was acquitted of second-degree murder the next year, told The Daily Beast that Martin’s mom and dad, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, were bad parents who were “capitalizing” on their son’s death.
Four years after the shooting, Zimmerman is also auctioning off the gun he used to kill Martin. Despite the overwhelmingly negative attention and fake listings the auction has garnered — including a $65 million bid from a user named “Racist McShootface” — Zimmerman says he has a firm offer with verified assets for $100,000.
He added to The Daily Beast that auctioning off the gun was what the forefathers would do, though he said he originally wanted to keep the weapon for his future children and grandchildren.
“It is what was used to save my life from a near-death brutal attack by Trayvon Martin,” he said, adding that he wanted it to be worth “as much as possible.” Zimmerman continued his verbal assault on the Martin family, saying Martin “attacked a complete stranger and attempted to kill him.”
“It’s their duty to have an internal dialogue to see what they should have done better and what they should have done appropriately,” he said.Zimmerman rattled off numerous grievances he wanted to settle with funds from the gun sale, like countering Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s “antifirearm rhetoric.” He said he also wanted to end the career of Angela Corey, the prosecutor who charged him with second-degree murder in Martin’s death.
During his interview, Zimmerman also said he would “fight” the Black Lives Matter movement and compensate law-enforcement officers he said were affected by it. “They would know that George Zimmerman is going to step in and make them richer than they ever dreamed of being,” he said. Since his acquittal, Zimmerman has had multiple run-ins with the police, and he was at one point faced charges of aggravated assault involving a girlfriend.