REMEMBERING: Brandon Giles (center) and other worshippers at Middle Collegiate Church wear hoodies yesterday in honor of slain teen Trayvon Martin. (Helayne Seidman)
Manhattan worshippers yesterday joined churchgoers across America in donning hoodies to honor Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teen blown away by a Florida cop wannabe.
Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village was filled to capacity — with almost everyone in the racially mixed audience wearing hoodies such as the one Martin had on when he was shot,
“We are all in hoodies today to say, ‘I’m not dangerous — racism is,’ ” said Minister Jacqui Lewis. “Every Sunday, I’m going to wear my hoodie until justice is done.’’
Martin, 17, was killed Feb. 26 in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., by volunteer neighborhood-watch captain George Zimmerman.
The teen had left his dad’s girlfriend’s house in the neighborhood to buy Skittles and a can of iced tea at a local store before the NBA All-Star game started on TV.
At Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, the Rev. Charles Adams approached the pulpit with iced tea and Skittles.
“Mr. Zimmerman was so worried about burglars that he became a thief that stole a human life,” Adams said, according to the Detroit News.
Florida cops so far have refused to arrest Zimmerman, buying his self-defense claim. State and federal prosecutors are looking into the case.
A witness to the shooting’s aftermath said Zimmerman did nothing to help Martin.
“We heard the gunshot, [and my roommate and I] both saw him straddling the body, basically a foot on both sides of Trayvon’s body, and his hands pressed on his back,” Mary Cutcher told NBC’s “Dateline’’ in an interview aired last night.
“Zimmerman never turned him over or tried to help him or [administer] CPR or anything.”
Still, another neighbor, Frank Taaffe, insisted Zimmerman never acted like “Charles Bronson or Rambo’’ around the community.
“He wasn’t Bernhard Goetz trying to jump on the subway looking for trouble,’’ Taaffe said.
Referring to TV’s “Andy Griffith Show,’’ about small-town cops, Taaffe added, “George was a cross between Barney Fife and Andy of Maybury.’’
Zimmerman’s lawyer insisted his client was only protecting himself.
“George Zimmerman suffered a broken nose, an injury — a gash — to the back of his head,” said lawyer Craig Sonner. “He claims that Trayvon Martin struck him, and he went down.”
But even the Florida rep who wrote the state’s “Stand Your Ground’’ law, which Zimmerman is using to defend himself, did not appear convinced.
When the “Dateline’’ reporter noted that “trained police investigators . . . determined no crime was committed [by Zimmerman],’’ Republican legislator Dennis Baxley replied, “I think they’re wrong.’’
Zimmerman has been in hiding. A friend said the shooter cried for days after the deadly incident.
“He couldn’t stop crying. He’s a caring human being,” said the pal, former TV news reporter Joe Oliver. “I mean, he took a man’s life, and he has no idea what to do about it. He’s extremely remorseful about it.”
Additional reporting by Bob Fredericks and Gerry Shields