Trayvon Martin Case: Police Wanted Warrant To Arrest George Zimmerman, Prosecutor Says

Bill Lee, the Sanford police chief, temporarily stepped
down from his post because he said his role in the
Trayvon Martin case had become a "distraction."
The special prosecutor in the case said that Lee's
police department initially sought a warrant for an
arrest in the case, but were told to wait by state
prosecutors. (AP

huffingtonpost

The Huffington Post  | 
By Gene Demby  | 
Posted: 03/28/2012 1:19 am 
Updated: 03/28/2012 5:10 am 

The special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case said that the Sanford Police Department asked the state attorney's office for an arrest warrant to charge George Zimmerman early in the investigation, but the state's attorney's office decided to wait.

The Miami Herald reported that the local police initially went to the Seminole State Attorney with a request to file charges and the police report labeled the case as "homicide/negligent manslaughter."

"The state attorney impaneled a grand jury, but before anything else could be done, the governor stepped in and asked us to pick it up in mid-stream," Angela Corey, the special prosecutor on the case said.

Chris Serino, the lead detective on the case, expressed doubts around Zimmerman's account of the shooting, according to ABC News. Serino filed an affidavit on the night of the shooting in which he said that he was unconvinced Zimmerman's version of events.  READ MORE