Verdict galvanizes further protests

The six-woman jury that acquitted George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin was initially split down the middle, with half voting to acquit, two for manslaughter and one for second-degree murder, according to the first juror to speak publicly.

She was among those favoring acquittal, the juror told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night.

Meanwhile, protests of the verdict continued across the country. In Los Angeles, demonstrators marched along Crenshaw Boulevard, stomping on cars, assaulting bystanders, setting fires and vandalizing property. People hurled chunks of concrete at officers on Vernon Avenue, police said, but no injuries were reported. Police declared an unlawful assembly shortly before 10 p.m. and arrested at least 13 people.

The chaos created a nightmare for commuters as cars were trapped around Leimert Park and bus service was canceled on Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards, transit officials said.

The juror identified in court as B37 appeared on CNN with her face obscured, saying she wanted to be “cautious.”

Earlier in the day, a literary agent announced that the juror had signed a deal to write a book about the trial. On CNN, the juror said she had spoken out and signed the deal with her husband, a lawyer, because she wanted the world to know how hard the sequestered jury worked, taking time to review evidence and testimony for nearly 60 witnesses during the five-week trial.

“We didn’t just go in there and say, we’re going to come in here and do guilty, not guilty -- we thought about it for hours, and cried over it afterward. I don’t think any of us could do anything like that ever again,” she said. Jurors deliberated about 16 hours before reaching their verdict Saturday night.

Prosecutors had argued that Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer whom they portrayed as a “wannabe cop,” profiled the unarmed Martin, 17, attacked him and then lied, claiming he acted in self-defense.

Martin was black and Zimmerman identifies as Latino.

The juror, who is white, said that during deliberations she and the others -- one Latina and four other whites -- came to believe Zimmerman’s account of events the night of Feb. 26, 2012: that Martin attacked him, that Zimmerman feared for his life and that he fired to defend himself. Race never entered into their deliberations, she said.

The juror told CNN she believed Sanford’s lead police investigator, who testified that he thought Zimmerman was telling the truth about being threatened that night. She also said she believed the voice heard screaming on a 911 tape was Zimmerman’s.

“After hours and hours of deliberating over the law and going over and over, we decided there was no other way to go. ... He had a right to defend himself,” she said.

Asked whether she felt sorry for Martin, the juror replied: “I feel sorry for both of them. I feel sorry for Trayvon, and the situation he was in, and I feel sorry for George because of the situation he got himself in.”

Cooper said CNN did not pay the juror to appear.

So far, the other jurors have not granted interviews. Their names remained under seal Monday.

Anger over the verdict continued, with calls for the Justice Department to file federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Nearly 1.1 million supporters have signed a petition sponsored by the NAACP calling on the Justice Department to take action against Zimmerman and “address the travesties of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin.”

The department has an ongoing investigation into the shooting. In a speech to a largely African American sorority Monday, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. did not indicate when a decision would be made.

“The Justice Department shares your concern. I share your concern,” said Holder, who was to address the NAACP national convention in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday.

For the government to mount a federal case alleging civil rights violations, the bar is high--such charges are usually brought against a law enforcement agency, not an individual.

In Orlando, NAACP President and Chief Executive Benjamin Todd Jealous told the vocal crowd on the first day of its five-day national convention, “These are times of great possibility, but also times of great peril” that demand courage and action.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Jealous -- the father of two -- said Zimmerman’s acquittal brought him to tears.

“When I heard that ... the first thing I did was walk over to my son’s crib and lift him up, and I listened to him breathe,” Jealous recalled. “And then I began to cry. No one can explain to me how, if this young boy was white, somebody wouldn’t be in prison right now.”

Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump told the convention that he had spoken with Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, the morning after the verdict.

“Sybrina said she cried, she prayed, she cried some more and then she got up and went to church that morning,” Crump said. “And when she came home from church, she called me up and said, ‘Mr. Crump, I will not let this verdict define Trayvon. ... We’ve got a long way to go so this won’t happen to anybody else’s child.’ ”

Crump has said Martin’s family is considering a civil suit against Zimmerman, who was not charged until the governor appointed a special prosecutor several weeks after the killing.

The Los Angeles protests had been largely peaceful until Monday night.

The evening began with a peaceful vigil at Leimert Park. But groups of youths broke off and began engaging in lawlessness along Crenshaw Boulevard.

Several protesters stormed a Wal-Mart on Crenshaw Boulevard as guards scrambled to close security gates.

“We want to support everyone’s 1st Amendment right to protest, but we also want to ensure public safety and not allow people to commit violent acts,” LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith told The Times.

Police estimated that up to 150 people were engaged in lawless activity along Crenshaw as they jumped on top of vehicles and appeared to assault bystanders. Some protesters ignited fireworks in the middle of Crenshaw.

The LAPD declared a tactical alert about 9 p.m., which means that off-duty officers can be held on duty when their shifts end and may respond only to high-priority calls.

Protests took place across the country, including in New York, Atlanta and Minneapolis. At a Cleveland rally, people threw Skittles, the candy Martin bought the night he was shot.

In Oakland, hundreds of protesters stormed Interstate 880 near downtown and blocked traffic in southbound and northbound lanes. The protesters were cleared from the freeway and made their way downtown, authorities said.

By late Monday night, multiple arrests had been made in the downtown area as officers from neighboring jurisdictions responded to the chaos, the Oakland Police Department said.

Zimmerman’s family says his life has been irrevocably altered. His parents told ABC’s Barbara Walters on Monday that they had received death threats and had been unable to talk to their son much.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t trust anything, not even the phones,” Gladys Zimmerman said.

“We have had an enormous amount of death threats. George’s legal counsel has had death threats, the police chief of Sanford, many people have had death threats,” Robert Zimmerman said.

The Zimmermans said they didn’t know whether they or their son would ever be able to rebuild their lives.

“We have lost everything, everything,” Gladys Zimmerman said. “The whole family, not only George.”

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Times staff writers Ken Dilanian and Christi Parsons in Washington and Robert J. Lopez, Benjamin Mueller, Matt Pearce and Ruben Vives in Los Angeles and the Orlando Sentinel contributed to this report.