Trayvon Benjamin Martin

Title : “Trayvon Benjamin Martin” (Study)
February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012
Size : 18″ x 24″
Type : Graphite on paper

URBANE MUSE® CHRIS SMITH
(February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) Trayvon Benjamin Martin was a 17-year-old African American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in Sanford, Florida.

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On the evening of February 26, Martin went to a convenience store and purchased candy and a canned drink. As Martin returned from the store, he walked through a neighborhood that had been victimized by robberies several times that year. Zimmerman, a member of the community watch, spotted him and called the Sanford Police to report him for suspicious behavior. Moments later, there was an altercation between the two individuals in which Martin was shot in the chest. Zimmerman, who was injured in the altercation, was not charged at the time of the shooting by the Sanford Police, who said that there was no evidence to refute his claim of self-defense and that Florida’s stand your ground law prohibited law-enforcement officials from arresting or charging him. After national media focused on the tragedy, Zimmerman was eventually charged and tried in Martin’s death. A jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder and of manslaughter in July 2013. (wiki)

In Memoriam

Title : “Tamar Rice” (Study)
June 25, 2002 – November 23, 2014
Size : 18″ x 24″
Type : Graphite and watercolor on paper

Title : “Michael Brown” (Study)
May 20, 1996 – August 9, 2014
Size : 18″ x 24”
Type : Graphite and watercolor on paper