>> the news nation is following exclusive new developments in the trayvon martin shooting case. rio.com managing editor is reporting that the sanford police chief along with the state attorney made the call not to charge george zimmerman with a crime the night of the shooting. this comes as a report of the miami herald claims the lead investigator on that case, originally wanted zimmerman arrested in trayvon martin 's death. in the meantime, congressman was kicked off the house floor this morning after putting up a hoodie or putting on a hoodie in honor of trayvon martin . bobby rush out of illinois was asked to stop taking after taking off his jacket and putting on the hoodie as well as sunglasses.
>> just because someone wears a hoodie, does not make them a hood lum.
>> heed these lessons. may god bless trayvon martin 's soul.
>> the man who claims he is a friend of shooter george zimmerman is making the rounds on tv shows defended his relationship with zimmerman and here is what happened a short time ago when he spoke with my colleague thomas roberts .
>> one thing that we want to play is charles blow tacking to you last night about --
>> again, again, that interview had nothing to do with george and trayvon martin .
>> it has everything to do about what you know about the man you're trying to defend because you weren't there at the shooting.
>> neither was anyone else , and that's the problem.
>> we talk about who george zimmerman is and you're trying to defend a man that no one else is showing up to defend, not even his own parents have come out for an interview.
>> a major twist in the case, the report the lead investigator wanted manslaughter charges filed came as i mentioned last night and now there is word the call was made by higher ups the very night of the shooting not to file any charges. joining me from sanford is joanne reed, contributor, managing etd tore of the rio got come. you have this exclusive information. give us more details, please.
>> tamron, what we already knew is the state attorney's office advised the police department on the night of the shooting that there was not sufficient grounds to charge george zimmerman with the killing of trayvon martin . what we learned and what i learned exclusively early this morning was that it was the state attorney who is over this county who made that decision after consulting with the police chief , then bill lee , and robert o'connor, who was in charge of investigations for the sanford police department . we hadn't heard that before buzz wolfinger you will recall at one point was going to be the state attorney investigating this case. when police sent that case up to him, he, if this is all true, presumably knew he had made the decision not to arrest zimmerman over ruling the homicide investigator who after talking to zimmerman decided he didn't believe the story and filed an affidavit to that account.
>> joanne , also what is happening behind the scenes? obviously when you have a report like this that the lead investigator made this recommendation and now the exclusive information you have been able to uncover, what is the police department saying if anything today?
>> well, the police department is not talking, tamron. that's one thing that is definitely not happening here in sanford . every piece of information, everyone is being routed up to angela cory's office and the state attorney from a neighboring county in charge of the investigation, and i think what is significant here is that we did see state attorney wochlinger wochl recuse himself. if he was actually on the scene, something that would be unusual for a state attorney to do, if he came to the scene or to the police department , consulted with the chief, and that they really made the call to, quote, cut george zimmerman loose, he should have never taken the case. that fact that he recused himself would make that make sense. the question is whether or not the police department , the actual investigator, they ever acted on an attempt to get a charge against zimmerman . that's not clear. of course as you said the miami herald is saying there was at least a request for an arrest warrant .
>> joanne , thank you very much. how does this new information about police initial wanting or at least one lead investigator wanting zimmerman charged, how does that impact where we are now? joining me now miami criminal defense attorney and former u.s. attorney kendall coffee. help me understand, the state attorney made the decision the night of the shooting, the killing of trayvon martin . is that usual business?
>> it is not inconceivable. all of that is startling, especially when we examine the fact early on we were told there was never any consideration given to charging zimmerman , that it was in an open and shut self-defense case supposedly. now we're hearing something very, very different. according to these reports, the lead investigator, the person on the scene, the person that normally law enforcement would say is in the best position to there is prospect in arrest, he apparently was effectively overruled by people sitting back at the office. it does happen, but it certainly raises a lot of questions.
>> what question does it raise? does it say that are you asking if the sanford police department is incompetent, the question many others have asked, is this a coverup? what question as the experienced top legal person in the state of florida , what is the main question you have 30 days after trayvon martin was killed we're now learning this critical information about this lead investigator's analysis of the crime scene and what he thinks should have happened?
>> the most obvious thing it tells is is there is going to be a thorough investigation of what happened that night and also an investigation of the investigation by sanford police and the state attorney's office. from my standpoint, one of the big concerns is how can you so quickly dismiss what the lead investigator said where you have somebody dead, an unarmed somebody who was killed by somebody with a gun, and if that decision was going to be made so quickly, they better be darn ready to show a detailed file of all of the other steps they took before they overrule the judgment, the professional judgment, the person in the best position to determine whether or not there was probably cause to arrest george zimmerman .
>> what i am going to ask about now, i am not sure it is relevant at this point but you have this person that says he is george zimmerman 's friend and an associate of the family and nonetheless making the rounds on a lot of shows. i want to play two clip from lawrence o'donnell's show on the last word with zimmerman 's friend who so far is the only person coming out defending him. let's play both of those clips, please.
>> george zimmerman learned from his mistakes and grew from them.
>> what mistakes did george zimmerman tell you about and what did he -- how did he tell you he grew from his mistakes?
>> i am just saying from what i have seen, the person that i know, the george zimmerman i know was not the george zimmerman who was arrested in 2005 . i wouldn't put myself on the line like this if i didn't know in my heart that george zimmerman was in a life or death struggle. i wouldn't be here, i would not be risking myself.
>> how do you know in your heart?
>> have you ever had a gut feeling ?
>> you were not there.
>> have you ever had a gut feeling ? were you there? were you there were you there?
>> you have been a prosecutor. you have been a defense attorney . if you were george zimmerman 's attorney, would you at some point contact this alleged friend and say you're not helping the situation here, what is your motive here?
>> i would have called him a few days ago. enough already. understand part of defense strategy sometimes, remember, you can't put george zimmerman on the camera, is to use surrogates. this is becoming an unhelpful, distraction and just keeps feeding emotion and public discussion and controversy and so if i were the kwens lawyer i would say sit down, go quiet, you have had your 15 minutes of fame . move on.
>> is it likely oliver is acting on his own or do you believe that zimmerman 's attorneys would at this point be using this guy whose story changes with every interview as a surrogate for them?
>> somebody connected him up with the press. i don't know for a fact, but my instinct and speculation is the defense lawyer did it initially. it may have gotten out of his control at this point. it is not helping george zimmerman , that's for sure.
>> thank you so much for reacting to the latest news exclusive information from joanne reed.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/46883285/
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