A US police officer accused of bringing targets resembling the fatally shot teen Trayvon Martin to a gun range has been fired.

Port Canaveral, Florida, interim chief executive officer John Walsh told WFTV on Saturday that Sgt Ron King was leading a target practice with two other officers and a civilian when he pulled out the targets April 4. Walsh says King asked the group if they wanted to use the targets, and they said no.

The 17-year-old Martin was killed in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in a case that led to protests over race and self-defense gun laws. Port Canaveral is about 60 miles (96km) from Sanford, where Martin was killed.

Zimmerman says he shot Martin, who was black, in self-defense. His trial is set for June.

Last May, the website GunBroker.com briefly advertised shooting targets depicting an apparent likeness to Martin, prompting outrage across the US.

Those paper silhouettes depicted an outline of a hooded man holding skittles and a can of iced tea – the same items that 17-year-old Martin was carrying on the day he was killed in February. It was unclear if the target King carried was the same one.