25 Mar 2012

Black Panthers put bounty on admitted killer

12:58 pm on 25 March 2012

Radical black activists in the United States are offering a $US10,000 bounty for "capture" of a man who has not been charged by police despite saying that he shot dead a black Florida teenager.

George Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch volunteer, says he shot dead Trayvon Martin, 17, a month ago in what he claims was a case of self-defence.

The teenaged boy was unarmed and walking to the home of his father's fiancee.

The case has prompted US President, Barak Obama, to criticise Florida's self-defence laws.

The New Black Panther Party which is offering the award, is not connected to the Black Panther movement of the 1960s and 1970s.