The Shortcut From 7-11 into Twin Lakes

[TalkLeft]

Some people say it is next to Frank Taaffe's house at 1460 Retreat View Circle. Others put it further north, close to 1350 Retreat View Circle.

Here's a video of a Fox News interview with Sierra McClendon (Austin's sister) in which she puts it at Frank Taaffe's house, 1460 Retreat View Circle. Good screenshots in the video.

During the video re-enactment, George shows where he first saw Trayvon, and it is at Frank Taaffe's house.



More views: here and here.

GZ's neighbor at 1510 Retreat View Circle also says the shortcut is between their houses.

But many put it up by 1350 Retreat View Circle.

Which one would Trayvon have been more likely to enter through?

(Edited to remove link to slideshow. Photobucket converted it to a link to all the Zimmerman photos I posted rather than just those for the shortcut.)

[nomatter_nevermind]

It makes sense to me that both routes would be used, depending on where the person is coming from and going to.

The one between 1460 and 1510 isn't a shortcut for a person going from Oregon Ave. to the intersection south of the main gate (RVC & TTL). I checked using Google Earth, and the distance is about the same either way.

[nomatter_nevermind]

There is news video of people using the 1460/1510 route. I don't know if there is any such evidence for 1350/1410.

[nomatter_nevermind]

Possibly Martin didn't go by way of Oregon Ave. at all. Maybe he knew a shortcut all the way across the two communities to the west, to Rinehart Road, maybe almost directly to the 7-11.

That would explain why Martin isn't on surveillance video of the intersection of Rinehart Rd. and Towne Center Blvd, if that is the case. (See p. 67 of the July 12 evidence release.)

More pictures.

[jupchurch]

I would go for the cut thru at 1350 Retreat View. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bzn-XlBIM9nGcE9BcnNtWVh1UWc. The 1350 is much closer to the side walk, so it would be the natural path at night when it is raining.  The other cut-thru is much further from Oregan and there appears to be some sort of slope which would be harder at night.

[nomatter_nevermind]

Contrary to Serino's March 13 report (p. 9), Zimmerman doesn't seem to have said that he saw Martin enter the complex. Martin could have come in the main entrance, made a right turn and walked to 1460, and that would be consistent with Zimmerman's statements.

[TalkLeft]

Contrary to Serino's March 13 report (p. 9), Zimmerman doesn't seem to have said that he saw Martin enter the complex. Martin could have come in the main entrance, made a right turn and walked to 1460, and that would be consistent with Zimmerman's statements.

Page 9 is available here. The 29 page file your link goes to, which I have also posted here, is 16 MB and takes quite a while to open.

[TalkLeft]

comment removed for suggesting this issue could be related to possible illegal activities by TM. There is no so suggestion of such activity in the disclosed evidence. Please don't raise it here, it's a character attack.

The issue of where the shortcut was could impact evaluation of GZ's statements of where he was when he first saw Trayvon and why that particular location stood out to him, having recently been the subject of another of his non-emergency calls.

There are newspapers putting the shortcut at the NW corner by 1350.  There are video news reports putting it at the trellises. There are residents putting it between Taaffe's house and his next door neighbors.

If you have an opinion as to which it is  and support for your theory, feel free to post it.  If you want to post speculation based on your belief GZ is telling the truth or not, this isn't the place.

[unitron]

My comment was intended to make the point that his presence there had a very high likelyhood of innocent explanation and for him to be there for nefarious purposes required the simultaneous occurence of two unlikely coincidences.

[FromBelow]

My comment was intended to make the point that his presence there had a very high likelyhood of innocent explanation and for him to be there for nefarious purposes required the simultaneous occurence of two unlikely coincidences.

I'm not quite sure why it matters. Are there laws restricting who a civilian can find suspicious and why?

[IgnatiusJDonnelly]

Then again is there a law against walking?

[AJ]

Then again is there a law against walking?

Must fall into that same category of laws that are against getting out of your vehicle

[leftwig]

Did GZ claim TM broke the law by walking next to Taaffe's house, or that it just looked suspicious that someone he didn't recognize was walking next to the house in the rain, just looking around?  I believe the folks participating in the neighborhood watch program were instructed to call the NEN if they saw something they thought looked suspicious and I'd say TM's chosen path on a dark rainy night combined with actions described by GZ would fit that criteria. 

I think its clear it was more than just seeing him walking in an area that is a cut through to another neighborhood that raised GZ's suspicion of TM. 

[unitron]

How much time would Zimmerman have had in which to observe Martin after first spotting him while still continuing to drive forward?  On the phone call it sounds like it was a lot more than a quick glimpse.

If Martin was fixing to cross the street and saw Zimmerman's headlights to his right, might he not have stopped and waited for that vehicle to get past, meaning that the more the vehicle slowed down the longer he'd be standing there waiting for it to get past so that he could cross without getting run over.  Could this have been mis-interpreted by Zimmerman who then drives even more slowly to observe him which means Martin acts even more like an impatient teenager until it's almost a feedback loop?

[Lousy1]

How much time would Zimmerman have had in which to observe Martin after first spotting him while still continuing to drive forward?  On the phone call it sounds like it was a lot more than a quick glimpse.

If Martin was fixing to cross the street and saw Zimmerman's headlights to his right, might he not have stopped and waited for that vehicle to get past, meaning that the more the vehicle slowed down the longer he'd be standing there waiting for it to get past so that he could cross without getting run over.  Could this have been mis-interpreted by Zimmerman who then drives even more slowly to observe him which means Martin acts even more like an impatient teenager until it's almost a feedback loop?