Thanks to the eagle-eyed crew at The Political Carnival, we have two MSNBC interviews with audio analysts who've listened to the Trayvon Martin "death tape" — the 911 call made by a neighbor as she listened to the tragedy unfold. (Sorry, I can't describe it any other way — we're hearing the moments that led to a gunshot and death.)
I've embedded the second interview segment below. The quote in my headline is from MSNBC's displayed segment title.
Before you listen, consider:
- There's no guarantee that the screaming is Martin; the experts are simply saying that the screaming is not Zimmerman, the shooter.
- Which means that the screaming could be voices of ear-witnesses, people who were hearing what the caller was hearing, and reacting with shouts of their own.
- Is it possible that Trayvon started the scuffle that led to Zimmerman pulling the gun, then screamed himself? That's one of the options not ruled out.
- It's certainly true that the screaming preceded the gunshot, at least in the segment of the 911 call played at the start of the interview.
In an earlier MSNBC interview (first video here), Kerry Sanders, who works for NBC in Miami, talked about the conclusions of two audio experts (one of whom was Tom Owen) who analyzed this tape.
He reported that a second analyst (not Owen) said the screaming voice wasn't someone as old as 30, based on the pitch and range of the voice itself. Zimmerman is 28 years old; Martin was 17.
Offered for your consideration.
UPDATE: The people at The Political Carnival have put together one of their Blunt videos using the 911 call featured here and a number of citizen comments. It's quite touching and worth a watch. (If you wish to add your voice to a future Blunt video, go here; they're always looking for contributors.)
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