I don't agree that the evidence shows he chased Martin at all. I don't find DeeDee more believable either. I don't see any evidence at all that indicates who started an altercation and the available evidence and witness statements that show how it ended up support Z's version. Do I think he embellished what was said between the two? Yes, I think he probably did. I also think Martin had the opportunity to get home if he was worried about Z's actions. That tells me that either he wasn't worried or he was interested in a confrontation.
Okay, let's do this thoroughly, using
Zimmerman's reenactment, and his
police call.
In the first couple of minutes of the reenactment, Zimmerman describes that Martin was walking slowly. Note that at 1:00 in this video, Zimmerman claims that Martin stops walking, and looks around at the edge of the road. But we can see that there's no sidewalk on the side of the street where Martin is, and a sidewalk on the other side - and that Zimmerman is driving towards him. It seems likely to me that Martin was simply trying to cross the street, and waiting for Zimmerman to pass. Zimmerman also states "I had never seen him before", which indicates that he got a decent look at him - and thus knew his skin color when he called the police.
At 2:20 in his reenactment, Zimmerman claims that Martin walked past him (and in front of his car, indicating that Martin did cross the street), and that Martin was looking at him. This correlates well with the section beginning at 0:50 in Zimmerman's police call, where he claims that Martin is "staring at [him]", "and affirms that Martin is "by the clubhouse".
2:35 in his reenactment is where things start to go off the rails. Here, Zimmerman claims that the dispatcher asks him where Martin went, and to please move in order to find him. This does not occur in his police recording. Instead, the dispatch asks Martin to tell him if Martin does anything, and that he has officers on the way. Roughly a minute later, Zimmerman begins giving instructions on how the police can find them - first stating that they should make a left immediately upon entering, and then stating that they should go straight. This would make sense if Martin had turned the corner while Zimmerman was giving directions - but it also gives reason to believe that Zimmerman is following Martin in his car.
Beginning at roughly 3:30 in the reenactment, Zimmerman states that he pulls up near the sidewalk at the T- Junction, that he sees Martin look back at him, that Martin goes behind the houses, but then walks back, and circles his car. This is both missing from the police call, and absurd, as Martin could not have possibly covered the required distance in the amount of time covered by the police call, while "casually walking" (realistically, Martin would actually be at the corner of the westmost end of Twin Trees when he began running). Also, people don't circle cars. Note also, that this is where Zimmerman says that Martin "had his hand in his waistband". So he is likely conflating Martin walking by him at the clubhouse, with this invented event.
From 4:00 to 4:40 of the reenactment, Zimmerman claims that the dispatch asks, multiple times for an address or for directions to get to him. This is presumably immediately after Trayvon runs off, and he uses this to explain that the need of an address is why he got out of a car. In the police call, this does not happen, and the only thing that the dispatcher says before Zimmerman opens his car door is "He's running? Which way is he running?", at 2:20.
In his re-enactment, Zimmerman begins his supposed walk to the other end of the T-junction at roughly 5:03, pauses at 5:53 at the T-Junction for another statement that does not appear in the police call, resumes walking at 6:06, and ends at 6:30. However, in his police all, Zimmerman begins moving at roughly 2:24, affirms that he is following Martin at 2:29, and seemingly ends movement at 2:42. Again, the times simply don't match up - there was no way for Zimmerman to have walked to the other end of the walkway in the given time, even assuming that he was at the west end of it when he started.
Here's something interesting, At 6:50 in his reenactment, Zimmerman states that the dispatcher asks him where he wants to meet with police, and Zimmerman states that his car is "next to the clubhouse", which is not how I would describe the location where he said his car was previously, but would fit in well if he got out to chase Martin while they were, well, by the clubhouse. But this means that, rather than walking to the east end of the walkway, he likely stopped at the *west* end. In other words, there's virtually no chance that he was somehow blindsided by Martin while walking through the T-Junction back to his truckIn any case, looking at his police recording, at roughly 3:50, Zimmerman rejects the idea of meeting police by the mailboxes, instead asking that they call him when they are nearby so that he can tell them where he is.
Now, let's shift gears a bit. At 3:20, the dispatcher asks Zimmerman where he's parked in front of. But at this point, Zimmerman has already abandoned his truck, so of course he can't simply look and see a house number. So basically, he's scrambling events badly in his reenactment. At 3:40, he claims "I don't know where this kid is", which contradicts his claim that he thought Martin had vanished in his reenactment.
Another odd thing - Zimmerman claims at 7:24 in his walkthrough that, while walking back to his truck, he looks down the southern path, sees nothing, and continues walking, but that Martin then appears saying "Yo, you got a problem!?" Um, why would Martin do this? Zimmerman has already past him, so whatever it is that Martin was supposedly doing wrong (and we have no evidence he was doing anything wrong at all) why would he suddenly coalesce from the shadows to pick a one on one fight - especially since he literally ran away from Zimmerman not too long before? It seems much more likely to me that Zimmerman ended his police call, and then continued his pursuit of Martin.
Note that this is just a comparison of Zimmerman's claim, with his own police call. It doesn't go into the risible dialogue Zimmerman attributes to Martin, why Martin would bother mounting Zimmerman when he could easily just kick him in the head, how Martin could have spotted Zimmerman's gun while sitting on his waist, how Zimmerman could scream for help while unable to breathe, and other issues with his story.
And yes, this is a wall o' text. Sometimes, such things are necessary. The point is, it seems that Zimmerman followed Martin both in his car, and on foot. And thus, it's pretty reasonable that Martin would ask Zimmerman "Why are you following me?", and that Zimmerman, convinced without reason that Martin was up to no good, would reply "What are you doing here?"
