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Trayvon Benjamin Martin was a 17-year-old African-American from Florida, who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman. Protests blew up in the streets demanding the rights for black kids and trying to make a change. During the protests, they made sure to avoid destroying all black owned businesses

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Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 - February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompanied his father to visit his father's fiancée at her townhouse at The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford. On the evening of February 26, Martin was walking back to the fiancée's house from a nearby convenience store. Zimmerman, a member of the community watch, saw Martin and reported him to the Sanford Police as suspicious. Several minutes later, an altercation happened and Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest.

Zimmerman was injured during the altercation with Martin. He said he shot Martin in self-defense and was not charged at the time. The police said there was no evidence to refute his claim of self-defense, and Florida's stand-your-ground law prohibited them from arresting or charging him. After national media focused on the incident, Zimmerman was eventually charged and tried, but a jury acquitted him of second-degree murder and manslaughter in July 2013.

Following Martin's death, rallies, marches, and protests were held across the United States. In March 2012, hundreds of students at his high school held a walkout in support of him. An online petition calling for a full investigation and prosecution of Zimmerman garnered 2.2 million signatures. Also in March, the media coverage surrounding Martin's death became the first story of 2012 to be featured more than the presidential race, which was underway at the time. A national debate about racial profiling and stand-your-ground laws ensued. The governor of Florida appointed a task force to examine the state's self-defense laws. Martin's life was scrutinized by the media and bloggers. The name Trayvon was tweeted more than two million times in the 30 days following the shooting. More than 1,000 people attended the viewing of his remains the day before his funeral, which was held on March 3 in Miami. He was buried in Dade-Memorial Park (North), in Miami. A memorial was dedicated to Martin at the Goldsboro Westside Historical Museum, a Black history museum in Sanford, in July 2013.

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton at an event in 2012

Martin was born in Miami, Florida, and attended both Norland Middle School and Highland Oaks Middle School, in north Miami-Dade County, Florida. He attended Miami Carol City High School in Miami Gardens for his freshman and sophomore years. At the time of the shooting, Martin was a junior at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School in north Miami-Dade.

Martin was born in 1995 in Miami, Florida, to Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, who divorced in 1999. At the time of the shooting, Fulton was a program coordinator for the Miami Dade Housing Authority, and Tracy Martin was a truck driver; they lived near each other in Miami Gardens. Martin's older maternal half-brother, Jahavaris Fulton, was a college student at the time (who would later testify in the Zimmerman trial).

After being divorced, Martin's father married Alicia Stanley, who had two daughters from a previous marriage. They met when Martin was about three years old and were together for about 14 years. Stanley told CNN's Anderson Cooper that before she and Tracy Martin separated, Trayvon was with her 90% of the time, and that she went to all his football games and took care of him when he was sick. She said that Trayvon was a kind and loving person, not a 'thug' as the media portrayed him.

When Martin was nine years old, he pulled his father, who had been immobilized by burns to the legs, out of a fire in their apartment, saving his life. Martin enjoyed sports video games. He washed cars, babysat, and cut grass to earn his own money. Martin had played football at the park since he was five years old and his team was coached in part by his father. Another of Martin's former football coaches said Martin had been one of the best players on their football team (The Wolverines) that played at Forzano Park in Miramar, Florida. Martin played for the Wolverines from ages 8 to 13, and sometimes sat out because his father benched him "because he messed up in school". During his years in high school, Martin volunteered at Forzano Park, working in the concession stand, sometimes staying until 8:00 or 9:00p.m., before going home. Martin's former football coach said he was a shy child and always walked with his hoodie and headphones on listening to music.

Martin's cousin Stephen Martin, who had been in a park telling jokes with Trayvon the night before his death, said that he and Trayvon had been like brothers growing up. He recalled that Trayvon had been very skilled at assembling, repairing, and riding pocket bikes and dirt bikes. Miriam Martin, Trayvon's aunt, and Stephen's mother said her nephew had often stayed over visiting her family. She also said that Trayvon was fond of wearing a hoodie: "it could be 100 degrees outside and he always had his hoodie on."

Martin had wanted to fly or repair airplanes and in mid-2009, enrolled in "Experience Aviation", a seven-week program in Opa-locka, Florida, run by award-winning aviator Barrington Irving. According to Irving, Martin was a polite youth "[who] reminded me of myself because I had a strong interest in football until I fell in love with aviation." After Martin graduated from the program, he spent the next summer as a volunteer, helping out new students in the aviation program. According to his parents, Martin had hoped to attend the University of Miami or Florida A&M University.

Martin's latter teenage years

Undated personal photo of Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie as a teenager. This image was displayed by protesters and sold by merchants on hoodies, T-shirts, and keychains, prompting the family to trademark slogans using his name.[24]

When Martin started high school, his goal of playing professional football was put aside in favor of a career working with airplanes. Martin attended Carol City High School in Miami Gardens for his freshman year and most of his sophomore year, before he transferred to Krop High School in north Miami-Dade in 2011. While in his first year at Carol City, Martin attended classes in the mornings at the high school and then went to George T. Baker Aviation School for the rest of his school day. Martin's ninth-grade teacher, who taught him three classes of Aerospace Technology at the Baker Aviation School, said he was a normal student, well-behaved, who passed all his classes. According to another teacher at Carol City, math was his favorite subject, and she said she never saw Martin show disrespect. Some students at Carol City compared Martin's death to that of Emmett Till, one of the nation's most infamous civil rights cases.

Martin's mother had him transferred to Dr. Michael M. Krop High School, which has approximately 2,700 students, for his junior year. Fulton said that her son had average performance in school, and she transferred him because she thought Krop High School was better and she wanted a different environment for him. While a student at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School, Martin had behavioral issues. At the time of the shooting, he was serving a ten-day suspension for having a marijuana pipe and an empty bag containing marijuana residue. He had been suspended twice before, for tardiness and truancy and marking up a door with graffiti. The suspension for graffiti was in October 2011, when Martin was observed by a school police officer on a security camera "hiding and being suspicious" in a restricted area of the school. According to the officer, he later observed Martin marking up a door with "W.T.F." ("what the fuck?"). When his backpack was searched the next day by a Miami-Dade School Police officer, looking for the graffiti marker, the officer found a dozen pieces of women's jewelry, a watch and a screwdriver that was described by the school police officer as a burglary tool. The jewelry found in his backpack included silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds. When Martin was asked by the officer if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend, he said a friend had given it to him. When asked for the name of the friend, Martin declined to provide it. The school police impounded the jewelry and sent photographs of it to detectives at Miami-Dade to investigate it further. No evidence surfaced at that time that the jewelry was stolen. An attorney for Martin's family said the parents did not know about the jewelry or screwdriver. Martin was not charged with any crime related to these suspensions and did not have a juvenile record.

Martin, known on Twitter by the nickname "Slimm", posted thousands of tweets over a period of months, according to the Miami Herald. Martin tweeted his last message two days before he was shot in February 2012. According to the Herald, Martin's digital footprint portrayed him as having a sense of humor and a preoccupation with girls, and sometimes using profanity when discussing sex in his tweets. Martin also enjoyed making jokes on Twitter about street culture, and posted YouTube excerpts from films like and Next Friday, which both made fun of street culture. Martin liked rap music and tweeted about Tupac Shakur, DMX and Mystikal. He often quoted explicit song lyrics in his tweets. Martin's postings sometimes reflected a personal nature with references to Krispy Kreme doughnuts, ice cream, movies and all-night study sessions. The Miami Herald also reported that Martin was not happy at Krop High School: in one of his tweets he had written, "WULD I MISS KROP?? HELL NAW FUK DA SKOOL, FUK DA LUNCH, ND MOST OF ALL FUK DA FACULTY..... IMA MISS SUM OF DA STUDENTS, MAINLY DA BABIES ;)"

Critics of Martin had pointed out his tattoos, an empty marijuana bag, a photo of Martin with gold grills, and texts from his cell phone to claim he had a violent nature and that there was an effort to keep this information from the public. His email and Facebook accounts were hacked by a white supremacist and selected tweets from his Twitter account were published on the conservative website The Daily Caller. A picture of Martin making an obscene gesture from his account was widely circulated, while pictures from his account of Martin with a birthday cake, fishing with his father and dressed in a prom suit were not. The website Gawker obtained a screen shot of Martin's email account inbox before it was deleted, showing emails referring to SAT exams and scholarship opportunities. During Zimmerman's trial, the judge granted defense lawyers access to Martin's cell phone, social media posts, and Facebook and Twitter accounts, saying that the defense team needed to be able to review the evidence for any indications of violent tendencies. Some of the cell phone texts the defense wanted to use showed Martin had texted about his fights, marijuana use, and guns, and that he had described himself as "gangsta". Benjamin Crump, the Martins' family attorney, said whether Martin had worn gold teeth or used an obscene gesture had nothing to do with his death. The judge eventually ruled that Martin's social media posts would not be mentioned during the trial, although his marijuana use could be. The defense did not present any of this information to the jury, and it was not entered into evidence.

Friends of Martin, who had known him from Highland Oaks Middle School and Carol City High School and corresponded with him over Twitter, said Martin was not prone to violence. One friend said he was the "walk away" type of guy: "he'd rather walk away than fight." She also said that she had never seen Martin's purported grills, and did not know he had them until she saw the picture on the news, and that she never saw him in public with them on. Another friend from Twitter who had known him since middle school said he was funny and had liked to joke around and make people laugh. A professor of media law at the University of Florida, Lyrissa Lidsky, said Martin's social media posts should be taken with a grain of salt, because they do not necessarily reflect what a teenager was like in person. She said a person's online persona may not reflect a true image of who they are, especially with young people. University of Florida criminal law professor Kenneth Nunn said when he was concerned about a person's character, he would look at anything, including what Martin's behavioral traits have been, or may have been over time.

At a banquet for Associated Press Broadcasters in Florida, Benjamin Crump, and Mark O'Mara, Zimmerman's defense attorney, both said the role that social media played immediately following Martin's death set a precedent. Crump said that social media had given people who normally would not have a voice in matters like this a chance to engage in the case. O'Mara said the misinformation that was tweeted following Martin's death "caused a firestorm that wasn't a full picture".

Tracy Martin said he took his son to Sanford "to disconnect and get his priorities straight". Martin had been to Twin Lakes several times before with his father, and sometimes played football with the kids in the neighborhood. On the night of the shooting, Tracy was out to dinner with his fiancée, Brandy Green, while Tracy's and Green's sons stayed at home, watching TV and playing video games. Trayvon went out, walking to a local 7-Eleven store where he bought Skittles candy and an Arizona watermelon drink.

As Martin was returning from the store to the Twin Lakes neighborhood, George Zimmerman, a volunteer Neighborhood Watch person, spotted Martin, who was 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) tall and weighed 158 pounds (72 kg) at the time of his death. Zimmerman called Sanford police to report Martin, who he said appeared "suspicious". There was an altercation between the two individuals in which Zimmerman shot Martin, killing him. Zimmerman claimed self-defense and was eventually charged in Martin's death. On June 10, 2013, Zimmerman's trial began in Sanford and on July 13, a jury acquitted him of second-degree murder and of manslaughter charges.

Aftermath and media discourse

Martin's parents, upset that an arrest had not been made in their son's death, contacted Martin's sister-in-law, an attorney who put them in touch with Benjamin Crump, a civil rights attorney from Tallahassee, Florida. Crump took their case and retained Natalie Jackson, an attorney familiar with Sanford and Seminole County who specialized in women's and children's cases, to help with the Martin case. On March 5, Jackson asked Ryan Julison to help as well. A publicist, Julison initially approached several national media contacts about covering the shooting. Over the next few days and weeks, the national media started reporting on the shooting, including: Reuters, CBS This Morning, ABC World News and CNN. The Miami Herald reported that in the 30 days following the shooting, the name Trayvon was tweeted more than two million times.

On March 8, Kevin Cunningham, a social media coordinator who had read about Martin's death, created a petition on Change.org, which became the largest in the website's history a few weeks later with 2.2 million signatures. Cunningham said he started the online petition demanding that authorities prosecute Zimmerman and when the number of signatures reached 10,000, he transferred the petition to Martin's parents after Change.org contacted him. Cunningham was the media coordinator for KinderUSA, and said he fell in love with social media during the Egyptian revolution and was inspired by the death of Khaled Said. He thought Martin's death could be a similar situation where the death of one person could trigger a reevaluation of society, and revolutionize the justice system and the culture.

Photo from the "Million Hoodie March" in Union Square

After the death of Martin, the media focus on the case was instrumental in developing a national debate about racial profiling and self-defense laws, with marches and rallies held across the United States. One of the larger rallies, called the "Million Hoodie March", was held in Manhattan's Union Square in New York City on March 21. People wore hoodies to symbolize their support for Martin, and against profiling used against non-white youths in hoodies. According to Salon, close to five thousand people attended the March, while other media outlets estimated the supporters to be in the hundreds. Martin's parents spoke at the event and many of the participants at the event were Occupiers who had been evicted the night before from Union Square and returned for the March.

At a White House press conference in March, President Obama was asked about the Martin shooting, and said, "If I had a son he would look like Trayvon and I think they [his parents] are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves." Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate at the time, said that a full inquiry was needed so that "justice could be carried out with impartiality and integrity". The Project for Excellence in Journalism reported in March that media coverage of the Martin case had become the first news story in 2012 to be reported on more than the presidential race.

In June, Martin's parents and members of the Second Chance on Shoot First campaign, delivered a petition with 340,000 signatures to the Citizen Safety and Protection task force asking for changes to the stand-your-ground law in Florida. Governor Rick Scott had established the task force after Martin's death to review and make recommendations about the law. Florida was the first state to pass a law that allowed an individual who felt threatened to stand their ground. Joëlle Anne Moreno, a former federal prosecutor, who was part of the task force said it was "clear that there was lots of confusion around the statute". Marion Hammer, a National Rifle Association of America (NRA) lobbyist and former NRA president who had helped write Florida's law, said the law was not about one incident and there was nothing wrong with the law. The task force eventually recommended against repealing the statute, saying that Florida residents had a right to defend themselves with deadly force without a duty to retreat if they feel threatened.

Stand-your-ground laws were not used as a legal defense in the trial of George Zimmerman and had no legal role in his eventual acquittal.

In March 2012, Martin's parents created the Trayvon Martin Foundation, which is dedicated to helping families that have lost children to gun violence.

Martin's parents and their legal team enlisted the public relations services of The TASC Group to manage media attention around Martin's death and Zimmerman's subsequent trial. In an interview with New York Times columnist Charles Blow in June, Martin's mother was asked about the texts recovered from her son's cell phone, which "appeared to show a boy who used marijuana, was involved in fights and had a handgun". She said that she was skeptical about the truthfulness of those claims and didn't know if they were real or not. She just wanted the world to remember him "as just an average teenager, somebody that was struggling through life, but nevertheless had a life".

Politicians, celebrities, musicians, civil rights leaders, and citizens all expressed their opinions on every form of media following the acquittal of Zimmerman. Four days after the acquittal, a group calling themselves the Dream Defenders, began a sit-in at the Florida State Capitol to force a special legislative session on Florida's stand-your-ground law. After 31 days, their occupation of the Capitol ended without a special session being called. A group of Martin supporters walked from Jacksonville, Florida to Sanford to highlight what they believed were injustices concerning Florida's stand-your-ground law. The six-day walk was called the "Walk for Dignity", and ended with a community forum being held and a dedication of the Trayvon Martin memorial at the Goldsboro Westside Historical Museum, in Sanford. In Los Angeles, California an area of a garden at Crenshaw High School was dedicated to Martin in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s " I Have a Dream" speech. A march was also held at the dedication to teach students how to express their First Amendment rights while standing their ground for youth Civil Rights, according to the school.

President Obama speaking in July 2013 about Trayvon Martin

In July, President Obama made comments about the death of Martin after the acquittal of Zimmerman. He said, "I think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see ... if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than defuse potential altercations." He stated that "The African-American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws". It was during these remarks when President Obama said, "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago."

2014 and later

On July 19, 2014, Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles was scheduled to hold a "peace walk and peace talk" hosted by Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. On May 13, 2017, Martin posthumously received a bachelor's degree in aeronautical science from Florida Memorial University "in honor of the steps he took during his young life toward becoming a pilot". Martin's parents accepted the award for their son.

In January 2017, Martin's parents (under Penguin Random House) published a book about Martin's life and death entitled Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin.

In October 2020, a street in front of the Dr. Michael M. Krop High School in Miami that Martin attended was named "Trayvon Martin Avenue".

References

External links

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Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 - February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompanied his father to visit his father's fiancée at her townhouse at The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford.

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three female Black organizers: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi
They created a Black-centered political will and movement-building project called "Black Lives Matter" based on envents that recently happened between white officers and black victims

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Black Lives Matter Movement

In 2013, three female Black organizers - Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi - created a Black-centered political will and movement building project called Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter began with a social media hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin back in 2012. The movement grew nationally in 2014 after the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. Since then it has established itself as a worldwide movement, particularly after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, MN. Most recently, #Black Lives Matter has spearheaded demonstrations worldwide protesting police brutality and systematic racism that overwhelmingly effects the Black community.

According to the Black Lives Matter website they were "founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives."

Selected Library Resources

Additional Resources

Take Action

BLM's #WhatMatters2020 Campaign: This 2020 Election-focused campaign focuses on promoting voter registration "among Millennials, Generation Z, the Black community, and allies" and education voters about a wide range of issues including "racial injustice, police brutality, criminal justice reform, Black immigration, economic injustice, LGBTQIA+ and human rights, environmental injustice, access to healthcare, access to quality education, and voting rights and suppression."

Local BLM Chapters: Local chapters of BLM in many areas of the country, including the DMV, have their own social media accounts to facilitate engagement in civil action close to home.

Follow Black Lives Matter on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

Hashtags to Search

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HUSL Library: A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: The Black Lives Matter Movement

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This guide focuses on the civil rights that various groups have fought for within the United States.

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After the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York BLM has established itself as a worldwide movement, particularly after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis

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Essence Magazine dedicates its cover to Black Lives Matter. "Pictures are powerful, but so are words." Essence states. The issue focuses heavily on black women of the movement with pieces by Angela Davis, Susan L. Taylor, Melissa Harris-Perry, Isabel Wilkerson, Michelle Alexander, Chirlane McCray, and more that helped through this process

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They are now bound together in our history, our hearts, our hashtags.

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four NBA basketball players: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade opened an awards ceremony with a plea to end the injustice.
The following month, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick symbolically took a knee during the national anthem before a game. It was a silent protest that would be picked up around the world.

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Colin Kaepernick: How taking a knee started after NFL quarterback met Nate Boyer

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Former special forces soldier Nate Boyer - who inspired Colin Kaepernick to start taking a knee - tells Sky Sports News the inside story of meeting the quarterback, what the gesture means, why it spread around the world, and his sadness at some fans booing football players in England.

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Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Minnesota when the officer who shot Castile was found not guilty. Castile's sister said, "He didn't deserve to die the way he did, and I will never have faith in this system." This shows the lack of security and safety based on recent events. All we need is "Change"

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Updated 2:15 a.m. ET Saturday
Hundreds of people gathered in St. Paul, Minn., Friday evening to protest a verdict that found a Minnesota police officer not guilty on all counts in his deadly shooting of a black man during a traffic stop in 2016.

Demonstrators gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol holding signs that included the phrases "black lives matter," and "no justice, no peace," and hundreds marched toward the nearby Cathedral of Saint Paul.

Marchers heading for University Ave now. Huge group, chanting as they go: "No justice no peace, prosecute the police." #yanezTrial pic.twitter.com/tYgg1kZ8uC
- Liz Sawyer (@ByLizSawyer) June 17, 2017

Some of the protesters that the Minnesota State Patrol estimated to be about 500 people made their way onto Interstate 94 and blocked traffic for more than an hour. Shortly before 1 a.m. Central time, the State Patrol tweeted that they were arresting protesters "who failed to leave the roadway." Police had mostly cleared protesters from the highway after midnight, according to The Associated Press, and protests were largely peaceful.

BREAKING: Interstste 94 in St Paul has now been taken over my #PhilandoCastile protesters. Via @MPRnews #YanezTrial pic.twitter.com/efhsbkl50D
- Doualy Xaykaothao (@DoualyX) June 17, 2017

After five days of deliberations, the jury found Officer Jeronimo Yanez not guilty of all counts in the July 2016 shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul.

"The system continues to fail black people, and it will continue to fail you all," Valerie Castile, Philando's mother, told reporters after the verdict. "My son loved this city and this city killed my son and the murderer gets away. ... I'm mad as hell right now."

Castile's sister Allysza, weeping, said, "He didn't deserve to die the way he did, and I will never have faith in this system." Castile family lawyer Glenda Hatchett vowed to continue fighting.

Castile, a 32-year-old school cafeteria worker, was driving with his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter when they were pulled over by St. Anthony police Officer Jeronimo Yanez.

"Seventy-four seconds after Yanez activated his squad lights, he fired the last of seven shots into the car," Minnesota Public Radio's Matt Sepic reported.

Yanez was charged last November with one count of felony second-degree manslaughter in Castile's death. He also faced two felony counts of intentional discharge of a dangerous weapon over allegedly endangering Castile's girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her daughter. He pleaded not guilty.

"Yanez stared ahead with no reaction as the verdict was read," the AP reported. "Afterward, one of his attorneys, Tom Kelly, said the defense was 'satisfied.' "

The City of St. Anthony said after the verdict that Yanez "will not return to active duty." In a statement, the city said that it "has concluded that the public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city." It said that Yanez would receive a "voluntary separation agreement."

The incident drew national attention when Reynolds started live-streaming the immediate aftermath of the exchange on Facebook, as Castile lay dying and her daughter sat in the back seat.

"In the stream," as The Two-Way reported, "she said Castile was stopped for a broken taillight, had notified the officer that he was licensed to carry a handgun and was reaching for his wallet at the officer's request when he was shot."

The video was a crucial piece of evidence during the trial, along with dashcam video from the police vehicle. As MPR reported, jurors requested to review both of these videos again Tuesday during their deliberations.

Yanez said in court that "he was forced to shoot Castile because the driver was not complying with the officer's commands and was reaching for a gun. Yanez previously testified he had stopped Castile because the driver resembled a suspect in a local convenience store robbery days earlier," MPR reported.

Yanez's defense attorneys also maintained that Castile was high at the time of the shooting.

However, the member station adds that prosecutors "say Yanez never saw Castile's gun, never told officers who responded to the scene or to his police dispatcher that there was a gun[, and that he] shot recklessly, killing Castile."

Castile was licensed to carry the weapon.

The shooting last July sparked protests, as we reported, and Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton described the incident and its aftermath as "absolutely appalling at all levels."

Castile was said to know the names of all 500 students he worked with, and after the verdict St. Paul Public Schools said the verdict "may bring strong emotions" for those who knew "Mr. Phil," whom they describe as a "beloved SPPS employee." The school district said it was making counselors available for students and staff over the summer.
NPR's James Doubek contributed to this report.

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Hundreds Protest After Minnesota Officer Found Not Guilty In Philando Castile Death

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Updated 2:15 a.m. ET Saturday Hundreds of people gathered in St. Paul, Minn., Friday evening to protest a verdict that found a Minnesota police officer not guilty on all counts in his deadly shooting of a black man during a traffic stop in 2016.

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As the Black Lives Matter movement marked five years, another fatal shooting of unarmed Stephon Clark started more protests. This shows how no forgotten life that was taken will be forgotten. Especially if its the death of an innocent black 22-year old

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After a grand jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in July 2013, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi created #BlackLivesMatter to start a broader conversation about racism in the U.S.

Five years later, issues brought to the national fore by the grassroots organization have become staples of progressive platforms - from #BlackLivesMatter to Parkland to #AbolishIce, there is a direct through line to calls to hold government accountable for gun violence and the treatment of minority communities, political experts say.

"The movement is growing, its influence on American politics is growing," said Deva Woodly, an associate professor of politics at the New School. "Not only has it shifted the attention of activists, but also the public at large."

Much of that influence has been in shifting conversations on race and the role of protests in politics.

"It has popularized civil disobedience and the need to put our bodies on the line," Cullors said. "With things like the Women's March, and Me Too, and March for our Lives, all of these movements, their foundations are in Black Lives Matter."

Black Lives Matter has also attracted backlash, including from President Trump. In July 2016, on Fox News' the O'Reilly Factor Trump, who was then running for office said, "I've seen them marching down the street, essentially calling death to the police, and I think we're going to have to look into that."

In November 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was grilled by black members of Congress on the House Judiciary Committee for an FBI report on "black identity extremists," seen to target Black Lives Matter.

As a member of the Senate in 2015, Sessions once said: "I do think it's a real problem when we have Black Lives Matter making statements that are really radical, that are absolutely false."

Cullors said that their message and their movement was one designed to be active online and to mobilize protests in the streets.

The movement's online presence has been critical to its impact and growth over the last five years. A recent report from the Pew Research Center found that #BlackLivesMatter has been tweeted nearly 30 million times since 2013, an average of 17,002 times a day.

"That hashtag is recognizable, that hashtag evokes something, I think, in the spirit of all people, not just here in America but around the world," said Sonia Lewis, the lead of the Sacramento chapter of Black Lives Matter and the cousin of Stephon Clark, who was killed in a police-involved shooting this March.

On the street, Black Lives Matter has both sustained protests around police violence and has shaped the principles of more recent protest movements.

And the movement's work has reverberated far beyond urban enclaves that have often seen the tension between law enforcement and minority communities play out.

Delaney Tarr, of the March for Our Lives protests stemming from gun control protests after the mass shooting in Parkland, said that Black Lives Matter has been something she's "incredibly conscious of."

"No matter who the perpetrator is gun violence is still gun violence," she added, saying that the lessons from Black Lives Matter have been something her movement has factored in because "we really wanted to be as intersectional as possible."

Marjory Stoneman Douglas students hold a press conference on June 4, 2018 at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Fla.

Taimy Alvarez/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Newscom

In addition to protests, Woodly said that Black Lives Matter has been instrumental in "changing people's minds about what's possible and desirable."

According to Gallup's most recent Most Important Problem poll, Americans rank immigration and race relations as the third and fourth biggest issues facing the country, a shift from five years ago Woodly says.

Black Lives Matter helped popularize some of today's more liberal policy positions."The call to abolish ICE is connected to the call to abolish police and prisons," Woodly said.

Adrian Reyna, the director of membership and technology strategies at United We Dream, a youth lead immigrant rights organization, echoed that sentiment.

"They have really set the ground to be able to push back against federal agencies like ICE and CBP, who are basically executing the agenda of putting as many people into the deportation pipeline and into detention centers," he said.

Participants arrive for the March for Our Lives Rally in Washington, DC on March 24, 2018.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

The Movement for Black Lives platform, released in 2016 by a coalition including 50 activist groups related to Black Lives Matter, calls for single-payer healthcare, the legalization of marijuana, in addition to an end of mass incarceration and police violence towards black people.

"There are so many different elected [officials], both black and white, who are challenging the status quo right now," Cullors said, calling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's recent election "a testament to our movement".

Kerri Evelyn Harris, who is running for Senate in Delaware on a progressive platform, said that Black Lives Matter has "made sure that we had to recognize things that for so long that we've turned a blind eye to."

As for the future of Black Lives Matter, Cullors said the organization is "in the middle of an evolution."

"For the last five years we've been on the streets. We've been protesting, we've been shutting down highways," she said. "And now, we have to ground down and decide what are the strategies, what's our institution going to look like."

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After 5 years, Black Lives Matter inspires new protest movements

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After a grand jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in July 2013, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi created #BlackLivesMatter to start a broader conversation about racism in the U.S.

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Rapper 21 Savage was detained by the US immigration agency in February because of gun possession. BLM co-founder Cullors sought support from celebrities and human rights organizations, with a #Free21Savage campaign, leading to his being released.

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Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage is facing new charges in connection with his 2019 arrest by ICE agents.

According to TMZ, the rapper, whose given name is She'yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, is facing two new charges of possession of a schedule II controlled substance and possession of a gun in connection to his arrest in DeKalb County in February of 2019.

Abraham-Joseph was arrested early Feb. 3 in a targeted operation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

ICE has said the British citizen overstayed his visa and has an October 2014 felony conviction in Fulton County.

His lawyers have said the 28-year-old rapper was brought to the U.S. when he was 7 and his legal status expired in 2006 through no fault of his own. They've disputed that he has a felony conviction, and immigration attorney Charles Kuck said ICE lawyers backed off that claim during a previous hearing.

TMZ reports that authorities now say Abraham-Joseph threw a bottle containing codeine out of his car during the arrest and that they found a handgun inside the vehicle.
SEE MORE: Rapper 21 Savage donates $25K for legal aid for detained immigrants
Abraham-Joseph turned himself in to the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office on Thursday and bonded out the same day. Kuck confirmed with TMZ that the charge is related to the incident from 2019 and is a state charge.
MORE: Rapper 21 Savage donates laptops to DeKalb County students WATCH: FOX 5 NEWS LIVE COVERAGE
"Last night's manufactured charges are yet another example of how our justice system, from ICE down to the local level, unjustly targets young Black men who seek to exercise their rights," Kuck said. "There is no legitimate basis for these charges nor for ICE's continued antics, and we will fight until Mr. Joseph is justly vindicated."
GET BREAKING NEWS EMAIL ALERTS FROM FOX 5 DOWNLOAD THE FOX 5 ATLANTA APP FOR BREAKING NEWS AND WEATHER ALERTS The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The rapper's upcoming hearing in immigration court is set for November.

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TMZ: Rapper 21 Savage faces 2 new charges connected to 2019 ICE arrest

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Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage is facing new charges in connection with his 2019 arrest by ICE agents. According to TMZ, the rapper, whose given name is She'yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, is facing two new charges of possession of a schedule II controlled substance and possession of a gun in connection to his arrest in DeKalb County in February of 2019.

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Medical technician Breonna Taylor was shot by police in her home in Louisville, after protests calling for the public to “say her name”.  Walker fires one bullet, hitting Mattingly in the leg moments after police take down the flat door with a battering ram. After that shots get fired and Breonna gets hit 6 times. This makes protesters angry and they decide to try to make a change. She was innocent, but still got shot

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Breonna Taylor: What happened on the night of her death?

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The 26-year-old was killed by police in her Louisville home, sparking protests and calls for justice.

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Black Lives Matter was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in January for raising awareness and consciousness of racial injustice throughout the years. “I find that one of the key challenges we have seen in America, but also in Europe and Asia, is the kind of increasing conflict based on inequality,” Eide said. “Black Lives Matter has become a very important worldwide movement to fight racial injustice.

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Black Lives Matter movement nominated for Nobel peace prize

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Norwegian MP cites global impact of BLM in raising awareness and consciousness of racial injustice