Footage challenges US teen killer's self-defense claim

Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin, claimed on February 26 that he had acted in self-defense after the high school junior punched and injured him.

However, newly released police video from the night that Martin was killed shows no blood or bruises on Zimmerman.

“It just shows that everything that Zimmerman has been saying, that the police have been reporting, is false,” father Tracy Martin told US media as he viewed the video.

“From what I saw, Zimmerman had no blood on his face, had no grass on the back of his clothes, no cuts on the back of his head,” Martin added.

The video showed that Zimmerman arrived at the Sanford police station in a police car, exiting with his hands cuffed behind his back and being led to questioning. He is seen wearing a red-and-black jacket.

The case is under investigation by the state and the US Justice Department.

Family attorney Benjamin Crump said the video is evidence that Zimmerman’s story is a lie and that officials botched their investigation the night of the shooting.

The murder of the teenager has been viewed as racial profiling of black Americans and sparked fierce protests in the United States.

Mass protests have been held in the country as many Americans demand justice for the slain teenager.