This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 29, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And tonight, we have new information out of Florida regarding the tragic shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Now, our Fox affiliate in Orlando, WOFL got an exclusive interview with Zimmerman's father Robert. Now, he says that his son followed Trayvon, so he could give police a cross street for his location. Here's what his father says happened, next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP/WOFL)
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S FATHER: He went to the next street, realized where he was and he was walking back to his vehicle. It's my understanding that at that point Trayvon Martin walked up to him, asked him, do you have a (bleep) problem? George said, no, I don't have a problem. And started to reach for his cell phone. At that point, he was punched in the nose, his nose was broken and he was knocked to the concrete. Trayvon Martin got on top of him and just started beating him -- in the face, in his nose, hitting his head on the concrete.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: And did Trayvon Martin say anything to your son as this was going on?
ZIMMERMAN: Umm, after nearly a minute of being beaten, George was trying to get his head off the concrete, trying to move with Trayvon on him, into the grass. In doing so, his firearm was shown. Trayvon Martin said something to the effect of you're going to die now or you're going to die tonight, something to that effect. He continued to beat George. And at some point, George pulled his pistol and did what he did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And joining me now is one of the Martin family attorneys, and that's Daryl Parks. Mr. Parks, thank you, sir, for being with us.
DARYL PARKS, MARTIN TRAYVON FAMILY ATTORNEY: Good evening.
HANNITY: I appreciate it. And look, any time we have a 17-year-old young man killed, it's a tragedy. I think we all agree with this. And our thoughts and prayers, I want to communicate to you, go out to the family. Let me ask you this, do you find in some ways, are we at a point where there has been a rush to judgment? In other words, you know, I've noticed some of your comments and you said that you want Mr. Zimmerman arrested. You want him charged. But do you know these full circumstances, do you leave open the possibility as Robert Zimmerman talks about, the story that his son told him about what happened that night, that maybe something, there are factors here that you don't understand, not having been there?
PARKS: Well, that's always a possibility, Mr. Hannity. However, in this situation, we have several things that we know that is true. We have a 911 tape where he says, he's following the young man. He is suspicious for no reason. The operator tells him not to get out of his car. He gets out of his car. He is chasing him. We hear him breathing very hard. He engages Trayvon.
Now we know, as late as today that we have a witness who was an eyeball witness who saw Mr. Zimmerman on top and saw him shoot Trayvon while he's on the bottom. And we have Mr. Zimmerman saying, yes, I did shoot him.
Now, whether or not he is guilty or not is not the issue when it comes to arresting someone. He should be arrested and a court of law decide whether or not he's guilty or innocent.
HANNITY: I understand that. But we also had a witness that was there and available that very first night and he has a very contradictory statement. His statement was that he saw Trayvon on top of Mr. Zimmerman and pounding his head into the concrete and into the cement. And just to -- just to point out one other thing, is that according to Zimmerman's side, he was walking back to his car when he says he was confronted, in fact, by Trayvon. And so obviously, we have -- we have conflicting stories here.
PARKS: But Mr. Hannity, when you have conflicting statements in any situation, right? We have enough for probable cause. I think no one can refute that. So what, we have conflicting statements. He should be arrested. We go to court, we'll let the court decide.
HANNITY: But you are talking about one witness that came out today. But the police spoke to the one eyewitness that night that said he saw Trayvon on top of Mr. Zimmerman, pushing his head into the ground, his injuries with a broken nose and lacerations to the back of his head were consistent, were they not, with the story that the eyewitness was talking about?
PARKS: Well, we have something to contradict that. Now we see pictures of Mr. Zimmerman --
HANNITY: What is that?
PARKS: Well, the pictures from the Sanford Police Department when the police cruiser is in the bay, Mr. Zimmerman gets out of the vehicle. We see him get out. We don't see any blood on the shirt.
HANNITY: Well, hang on a second.
PARKS: -- on the jacket.
HANNITY: He was treated by a medic, was he not? At the scene?
PARKS: But he claims to have blood all over his body. Do you see any blood on the jacket, on his shirt? No you don't.
HANNITY: No. But The Daily Caller actually focused in and it appeared that they saw an injury to the back of the head which would have been consistent with the laceration. And either he had a broken nose or he didn't have a broken nose. And according to the -- there was another witness that came out, Fox 35 in Orlando, interviewed a woman that said that the blood was -- was kind of all over the place and that she saw the injury to -- Mr. Zimmerman's face.
PARKS: Well, if she said there was blood all over the place, we can look at the frame and determine whether or not.
HANNITY: No, no, no, no. How do you know he didn't change his clothes? In other words, he was treated by a medic. He lived in the neighborhood. Do we know if he changed his clothes?
PARKS: If he changed his clothes, Mr. Hannity, we have a real problem.
HANNITY: Why is that?
PARKS: It's evidence in a murder case.
HANNITY: It doesn't mean that the clothes were not given to the police. We don't know if we had it or not. We know that -- we also know that there were green stains on the back from grass on the back of Mr. Zimmerman's shirt as well.
Here's my point. And this is what is very concerning. I don't really know what happened here. And I just think this is a tragedy. I have almost thought from the beginning, if you listen to the 911 call, you hear the comments of Mr. Zimmerman and he says, uh-oh, he-- in his mind, right or wrong, and it appears it was wrong, thought that he saw somebody that he didn't recognize in the neighborhood, a neighbor that had experienced crime recently. He talked about, quote, "acting strange, reaching for a waistband." So, at least in his mind, he thought there was some threat.
Secondly, then you have Trayvon, and I can understand from his point of view, probably thinking who is this guy looking at me? Who is this guy on the phone, maybe following me? And you know, I can see where both sides at least emotionally, mentally had a very different perspective of what was going on, which could lead to a horrific tragedy and in this case, the death of an innocent kid.
PARKS: Mr. Hannity, please, back up a second. First of all, you see Trayvon walking down the street with some skittles and an iced tea.
HANNITY: He didn't see that. That's not what he said on the 911 tape.
PARKS: No. He said he was walking down the street. That's what he said.
HANNITY: Yes, well, I'm only giving you both sides here. And the one side, the Zimmerman side is saying that George Zimmerman told his father that in fact, he was walking back to the car and it was Trayvon who confronted him and threatened him and broke his nose and put these lacerations on the back of the head. Are you denying that that's a possibility?
PARKS: Let me take you back. OK.
HANNITY: No, no, no, you can take me back. But is that a possibility that Trayvon broke his nose and pounded his head into the cement? Is that possible.
PARKS: Well, it's quite possible that he was the one that's instigated the incident when he got out of the vehicle out of the -- and became a vigilante. He started to fight with Trayvon.
HANNITY: Wait, wait. Where's the proof for that? Because the other side is claiming the opposite. Do you have evidence of that?
PARKS: Yes! We have the tape that we provided to the Police Department from the young lady. We have phone records that we provided at 7:12.
HANNITY: So that conversation was taped with Trayvon and his girlfriend.
PARKS: No, it was not taped.
HANNITY: All right. So you have the testimony of the girlfriend and on that conversation, she's saying, he's confronting me right now?
PARKS: Yes!
HANNITY: Well, I mean, because you have and then, how do you explain where the local, or the proximity is of the confrontation if in fact Mr. Zimmerman, relaying his son's story, is saying that it literally took place as he was headed back to the car.
PARKS: Well, we have this witness that came forward that was on "AC 360" today that says that he saw him and the altercation took place on the grass.
HANNITY: Whoa. Where was that witness, you know, a month ago?
PARKS: That's a good question. We continue to worry about all the evidence that continues to be linked against poor, dead Trayvon in the situation.
HANNITY: It's irrelevant to me about the school suspensions. That's not relevant to me at all in any way. And I would just like, I would say, the allegations of racism against Mr. Zimmerman, you have a Hispanic- American, who apparently according to reports, tutored young African- Americans on the weekend. He does not seem to fit the profile of somebody that has racial antipathy, does he?
PARKS: No, let me say this to you, sir. I want to say this to all of America. We are not making this a racial issue. I think that he was profiled, yes. We are past the issue. We all know that we have an issue that we all Americans are dealing with, most African-Americans accept that that is a challenge in life and we move on in life. In this situation, though, I think you have to give some credence to the girlfriend's testimony.
HANNITY: I agree. That's part of the puzzle.
PARKS: She was on the phone with him. We have the phone records, is starts from 7:12 to 7:16. At 7:17, the Sanford Police Department is on the scene. Mr. Zimmerman should have stayed in the vehicle like the authorities told him to do.
HANNITY: I agree with that part.
PARKS: If he stayed in the vehicle, that would have never happened.
HANNITY: I agree. When the dispatch said that we don't need to you do that, I agree, he should have retreated. I have said that many times.
The only question that still remains and is open is whether or not he was walking back to his car and whether or not Trayvon confronted him or he confronted Trayvon. And we don't know. And we don't know whether.
PARKS: Yes, we do.
HANNITY: Wait a minute. We don't know who screamed on the tape that we hear. And we don't for sure -- both sides are claiming that it was -- one side says Trayvon, one side says Mr. Zimmerman. We don't know who was on top of who. The eyewitness from that night said it was Trayvon on top of Mr. Zimmerman. You're claiming it was just the opposite with a brand-new witness that came out just tonight.
PARKS: Well, let me ask you this here.
HANNITY: Yes.
PARKS: If we go to the 911 tapes, the 911 tapes are very clear on Mr. Zimmerman's words that he was following Trayvon. You agree with that, correct?
HANNITY: Oh, yes, absolutely.
PARKS: OK.
HANNITY: You can hear him out of breath.
PARKS: That makes him the instigator. And in America, if you instigate an altercation of any sort, right? When in our life, that if you instigate a fight with someone, you happen to be losing the fight --
HANNITY: Oh, following somebody that you think is that maybe a suspect because there is a rash of crimes in your neighborhood doesn't make you an instigator of a fight.
PARKS: But also, he never properly identified himself. He has no badge. He's a guy walking around with a 9-millimeter. He's a vigilante.
HANNITY: All right. Well, we are going to find out in time. The only I do hope is that it's fully investigated and I hope that people, including Congress members stop rushing to judgment. There's both sides here. And neither, you and I were there nor do we know the answers. And I think, over time, hopefully, we will get to the truth and our thoughts and prayers are with the family. Thank you for being with us.
PARKS: So, we want him to have his day in court as well, sir.
HANNITY: All right. We appreciate your time. Thank you sir for being with us.
PARKS: Thank you.
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