Claim: George Zimmerman is suing Trayvon Martin’s parents for their failure to control their son.

FALSE

Example: [Collected via e-mail, July 2013]



Facebook is sharing that George Zimmerman is suing Trayvon Martin’s parents for failure to control him. I find this very difficult to

believe. I think this is bogus.



Origins: On 15 July 2013, the National Report published an article (“George Zimmerman Files Civil Suit Against Trayvon Martin’s Parents”) about acquitted defendant George Zimmerman’s having filed a civil lawsuit against the parents of the teenager he shot, Trayvon Martin:





George Zimmerman filed a civil suit today just before 5PM EST at the Seminole County, Florida, Courthouse. The suit alleges the parents of Trayvon Martin, failed to control their minor-age son on the evening of February 26, 2012, when Martin repeatedly assaulted Zimmerman, placing him in imminent fear for his life and George Zimmerman filed a civil suit today just beforeat the Seminole County, Florida, Courthouse. The suit alleges the parents of Trayvon Martin, failed to control their minor-age son on the evening of2012, when Martin repeatedly assaulted Zimmerman, placing him in imminent fear for his life and resulting in the death of Martin. The civil action specifies that Zimmerman acted in self defense resulting in the case being ruled a justifiable homicide by a jury trial that ended on Saturday with a verdict of not guilty. Desperate state prosecutors charged the victim with 2nd degree murder though they had no evidence of a crime and hoping to stay off more violence and having Florida put to the torch at the criminal hands of rioters months before the start of the state’s tourist season. The complaint further specifies Zimmerman shares “zero-liability” in the death of Martin as he acted without malice and solely in self-defense. The amount of damages Zimmerman is seeking are unspecified.





By the following day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news article. However, the article was just a bit of satire from the National Report, a web site which publishes outrageous fictional stories such as “IRS Plans to Target Leprechauns Next,” “Boy Scouts Announce Boobs Merit Badge,” and “New CDC Study Indicates Pets of Gay Couples Worse at Sports, Better at Fashion Than Pets of Straight Couples.”