By Pete Williams, NBC News, and M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com Updated at 2:57 p.m. ET: The special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case will...
The special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case will announce criminal charges against George Zimmerman on Wednesday, a law enforcement official told NBC News. The nature of the charges wasn't immediately known, the official told NBC News Justice Department correspondent Pete Williams, speaking on condition of anonymity. But because Angela Corey — the special prosecutor appointed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to re-examine the case — previously announced that she wouldn't take the case to a grand jury, first-degree murder is not an option. Corey's office confirmed that a news conference would be at 6 p.m. ET in Jacksonville, Fla.
Authorities in Sanford, Fla. — where Zimmerman, 28, a neighborhood watch volunteer, shot Martin, 17, on Feb. 26 — also began preparing for an announcement from Corey, NBC station WESH of Orlando reported. Seminole County sheriff's deputies spent Wednesday morning setting up barricades along the booking area for new inmates at the county jail. Martin's father, Tracy Martin, said he was looking forward to Corey's announcement.
"It's 44 days later, and George Zimmerman is still walking free," Martin said at a news conference during a meeting of the National Action Network in Washington. "It's 44 days later, and my son is in a mausoleum." (The National Action Network is a project of the Rev. Al Sharpton, host of MSNBC-TV's "PoliticsNation," who has played a prominent role in advocating for charges against Zimmerman.) Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Martin's parents, urged people to "remain peaceful" after the expected announcement. Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother is Peruvian, says he shot Martin, who was black, in self-defense after following him in a gated community in Sanford. Police questioned Zimmerman but decided against pressing charges. The lack of an arrest or charges has sparked protests nationwide, with critics alleging that Zimmerman confronted Martin because of his race.
Zimmerman's supporters deny that. Corey said Tuesday that she wouldn't convene a grand jury probe. That announcement came before Zimmerman's attorneys said they had lost touch with their client and were withdrawing from the case. A federal civil rights investigation is also under way, but U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the Justice Department had to meet a "high bar" to bring any charges. The main federal role is to "support the state in its ongoing investigation," Holder told reporters Wednesday morning in Washington. At the same time, he said, the Justice Department is conducting its "own thorough and parallel investigation" to try to resolve the case "in as fair and complete a way and as quickly as we can."
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