On Wednesday night, Fox News’ Sean Hannity sat down with George Zimmerman, who has invoked Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law in the shooting and murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, in an exclusive interview.
RELATED: Shameful! Zimmerman Free On Bail
Sticking to his reported story, Zimmerman told Hannity in his first televised interview that after Martin approached him, Martin punched him in the face and immediately broke his nose while Zimmerman was allegedly responding to his question:
“He asked me what my [f*cking] problem was. I was wearing my green jacket, and I put my cell phone in it as opposed to my jean’s pocket. I was reaching down to call 911 again, and that’s when he punched me.”
Hannity asked, “He asked you, ‘What’s your problem?'”
“Yes, he said, ‘Do you have a problem, what’s your problem?’ I reached for my phone, as I said, and he hit me and broke my nose.”
Hannity then asked Zimmerman how he ended up on the ground:
“I don’t remember if he pushed me on the ground, but I ended up on the ground. He continued to punch me in the head, several more than a dozen times.”
Hannity then asked Zimmerman at what point did he fear for his life. Zimmerman responded that he feared for his life at the point that Martin wouldn’t stop hitting his head on the ground, “In hindsight, I’d [say it was] when he was slamming my head in to the concrete.”
Hannity asked Zimmerman if Martin was talking with him during the beating. According to Zimmerman, it was then that Martin allegedly told him that he was going to die, “Yes, he was cursing, telling me to shut up and then telling me he was going to kill me.”
According to Hannity, police could hear someone screaming out a total of 14 times. Not surprisingly, Zimmerman claims that the screams were coming from him, because he wanted the police to find him, “Yes, I believe from what the investigators told me, he knew I was talking to the police and I was yelling so they could find me,” Zimmerman said.
Finally, Hannity gets Zimmerman to discuss Martin’s final moments before he pulled the trigger,”At that point, I realized that it was not my gun, it was not his gun, it was the gun. He said, “You are going to die tonight, muthaf*cka.” He took one hand off my mouth, and I felt his hand going down to my holster and I didn’t have any time.”
According to published reports, Zimmerman ended up shooting Martin with a single gunshot to the chest. Zimmerman claims that even after Martin was shot, he sat up and said something to the effect of, “You got it, or you got me…OK, you got the gun.”
Hannity then proceeded to ask Zimmerman whether he had any regrets about the night of February 26th:
“Is there anything that you regret?”
“No, sir.”
“Do you regret having a gun?”
“No, sir…I feel as though it was all in God’s plan.”
Hannity then asks Zimmerman about his statement during his 911 call when he said that “the bad guys always get away.” Zimmerman responded that he supposedly meant that “in [his] neighborhood… there are geographic advantages [to getting away] in [his] neighborhood.”
As for Trayvon Martin’s parents, Zimmerman said he would apologize to them if he got the chance:
“I would tell them that, again, I’m sorry.”
“My wife and I don’t have any children,” Zimmerman said in an excerpt released in advance of the airing. “I have nephews that I love more than life. I love them more than myself. And I know when they were born, it was a different unique bond and love that I have with them. And I love my children even though that they aren’t born yet.
“I am sorry that they buried their child. I can’t imagine what it must feel like. And I pray for them daily.”
“I appreciate you not rushing to judgment. [Many people don’t know] but English was my second language, because my grandmother and mom raised me while my father…was away. I consider myself first an American, [but I’m] a Hispanic American.”
And while we are on the broken nose issue, just last week, another report came out indicating that police at the crime scene could not agree on whether Zimmerman’s nose was even broken or not.