I said I would have also followed him to see what he was up to and make sure he was legit and not up to any criminal behavior. I've done it many times here when I see suspicious people in my neighborhood.

I would have handled it differently than GZ and stayed back far enough eliminating any encounter. Getting too close was GZ's huge mistake iyam.

It is a big tragedy for sure.

WL

I am not saying this is what happened because I do not know.

However, you mentioned you would not have gotten close enough to make it an encounter and that this was Zimmerman's mistake.  Assuming that he did get too close, is there a point where Martin could fear for his own safety and defend himself?  One person brought a weapon and created a confrontation.  It looks like he made a really bad decision and was getting beat up because of it.  However, because he brought a gun, he escaped from the situation that he, in many ways, caused, while the other guy, possibly much less responsible for the encounter, is dead.  I probably wouldn't call that murder, but it seems like the guy who made the mistakes should be held responsible in some fashion.