By msnbc.com staff
A 17-year-old boy whose death has sparked national outrage fearfully?told a friend over the phone?moments before he was shot and killed that he was being followed, ABC?News reported Tuesday.
"He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,"?the female friend of Trayvon Martin, who was shot to death on Feb. 26 in Twin Lakes, Fla., told ABC. "I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run, but he said he was not going to run."
Martin, who is black, was unarmed when a neighborhood watch captain spotted him walking home after buying candy and iced tea from a convenience store. Call logs from Martin's phone confirm he spoke with the 16-year-old friend interviewed by ABC News minutes before his death, the news station reported. She was not identified, and spoke through an attorney.
More than 435,000 people, many alerted by tweets from celebrities?such as?movie director Spike Lee and musician Wyclef Jean, signed a petition on Change.org, a social action website, calling for the arrest of Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman, who has claimed he acted in self-defense. On Monday, the Justice Department and FBI announced they opened an investigation into the shooting.
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Although Martin initially told his friend he wasn't going to run, he eventually did, she said, but the stranger managed to corner him.
"Trayvon said, 'What, are you following me for,' and the man said, 'What are you doing here.' Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn't answer the phone."
After that, the line went dead, she said. According to ABC News, other than screams on 911 calls as Martin and Zimmerman scuffled, those were the last words Martin said.
Zimmerman called police 46 times
Zimmerman, meanwhile, called 911 dozens of times in the months that led to the fatal shooting, The Orlando Sentinel reported Monday evening. The Seminole County Sheriff's Office released six calls he had made, four of which called police to report "suspicious" persons -- all of whom were black -- in or near the Retreat at Twin Lakes enclave, the paper said.
The other calls were about a neighbor's open garage door and children playing in the street at dusk, reported The Sentinel. None of the newly released calls are related to Martin's shooting.
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