mayor triplett, you voted today to -- yesterday, i'm sorry. the vote of no confidence in the police chief. why did you cast that vote? >> well, like i said last night at the meeting, i don't know about the investigation. we have heard a lot of innuendoes and rumors out there and because of the way that it's been handled since that point in time that we got involved in. from a managerial position, when i look at my heart and think has he done a good job since then, i have to say that i don't think so. >> mayor triplett, who is in charge of the police department now? >> bonaparte has named the two captains as co-leaders until we can figure out what the next step is with bringing someone in for the interim. >> eugene, what would you recommend for a police department in this kind of troubled situation? >> to be honest with you, the city manager and i don't think the mayor is alluding to this, that you have to have a law enforcement expertise or skill set, the information is pretty straightforward. to be quite blunt, i think police supervisors, ser

. >> mayor triplett, thank you. >>> the serious allegations against a first lady. she has been spending her time and thousands have been killed by the regime. at firstcarstory. courtesy of the 2012 subaru impreza. experience love that lasts. ♪

mayor jeff triplett joins us now.e emergence of the police video showing george zimmerman just a little more than a half hour after he fired the fatal shots in this case, the shots that changed life in your town, what is your reaction to the release of this video and what you're seeing in the video? >> you know, it's interesting to me, it causes more questions than it actually does answers as far as i'm concerned. you know, and this is the exact reason why we've gone out to the, you know, to the department of justice and the fdle to review our practices and policies and to take a look at how we've handled this investigation since day one. i'm not an attorney or a law enforcement officer. i'm the mayor, so i'd hate to form an opinion as to exactly my thoughts and opinions about that. >> george zimmerman's father said something in an interview last night, a local interview down there which i'm sure you've seen which actually moved his comment into the political arena which is your arena. i want to play this for you. i w

mayor triplett, what is the temporary aspect of the chief's status? do you ever expect him to resume his duties while he's not doing the job? >> i have not had the opportunity to talk to mr. bonapart about this. i imagine we'll get together tomorrow to understand what the thought process is between him and chief lee. >> and eugene o'donnell, what we know about the investigation so far, i mean, it's fairly routine to come upon and fascinating you as a former police officer know these things as well and one of the elements in one of the police reports that suggests to the police they interpreted this as a possibility that there was some kind of occupation is the notion that zimmerman's shirt was wet in the back and had grass stains in the back and maybe a bloody nose but that was not in the first police report so it's starting to become a suspicious element in the case. why did this stuff that would be part of the self-defense come into it later? >> it's entirely possible that the responding officers for whatever reason didn't the confidence that the pe

mayor triplett says zimmerman should also have been arrested. did you feel the case was investigated with appropriate vigor vigor from the beginning, and if not, is race a factor in what happened-- how it did happen? >> >> when there's strained trust, there's there's always that doubt, that conspiracy theory, that doubt that everything was done that could have been done. i still have my questions as to why he's not in jail. but we have only seen a very small piece of the puzzle. >> reporter: trayvon martin's family met with department of justice officials today looking into a possible hate crime. they were told to be patient, that a thorough investigation could take time, and, scott, the local grand jury wont meet here until april 10. >> pelley: mark, you've been talking to the investigators there today. what do they think about zimmerman? >> reporter: they think he's being cooperative. they say he has passed a vo stress test but will probably take another one. there are a number of pieces of evidence that seem to support his contention that he

joining me, sanford mayor jeff triplett.hank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks for having me. >> that was bonaparte saying trust has to be rebuilt. how do you rebuild trust in the department between this police department and the people you serve? >> i think officially right now, we've got to get to the bottom of this investigation. we've taken the steps from the city to reach out to the department of justice, the fdle, governor rick scott, the special prosecutor. i think when all those things come together, we can all sit down as a community and hash out what we need to go, where we need to go from here. it's almost a two-pronged approach for us. what did we do? did we do something wrong? how do we fix that and also getting the justice that is desired in the case. but also on a third point is pulling our community leaders together and sitting down at the table for the first time in a long time and saying what do you want to see? how can we get through this? how do we heal? what's the next step? >> what was y

you're also going to hear from sanford's mayor, jeff triplette who casts a no confidence vote on the police chief. president obama who hasn't spoken publicly until now broke his silence today. >> but my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. if i had a son, he'd look like trayvon. and, you know, i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this with the seriousness that it deserves and that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. >> mitt romney called it a tragedy. rick son toantorum say his acti look different to him than the stand your ground law and he was clearly overreaching in his neighborhood watch duties. zimmerman had no authorization, his words, to shoot trayvon martin. meantime, the protests go on across the country. that miami high school, students walked out, marched to the football field and spelled out trayvon martin's initials for all to see. we got a lot to cover on this case tonight. we begin with the breaking news and the attorney for george zimmerman. i spoke to him moments ago. >> how is your client

and you're going to hear from sanford's mayor, jeff triplett. and meantime, president obama who hasn't spoken publicly about the martin case until today speaks now. >> but my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. you know, if i had a son he'd look like trayvon. and, you know, i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. >> well, the republican presidential candidates weighing in. mitt romney calling it a tragedy, rick santorum saying that the actions look starkly different to him than those protected by florida stand your ground law. newt gingrich said that zimmerman was clearly overreaching in his neighborhood watch duties. allen west said zimmerman had no authorization to shoot trayvon martin. meantime, the protests go on across this country. in this miami high school, the students marched out and spelled out trayvon martin's officials for all to see. we have breaking news and we have craig son

and you're going to hear from sanford's mayor, jeff triplett. and meantime, president obama who hasn't spoken publicly about the martin case until today speaks now. >> but my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. you know, if i had a son he'd look like trayvon. and, you know, i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. >> well, the republican presidential candidates weighing in. mitt romney calling it a tragedy, rick santorum saying that the actions look starkly different to him than those protected by florida stand your ground law. newt gingrich said that zimmerman was clearly overreaching in his neighborhood watch duties. allen west said zimmerman had no authorization to shoot trayvon martin. meantime, the protests go on across this country. in this miami high school, the students marched out and spelled out trayvon martin's officials for all to see. we have breaking news and we have craig son

>> reporter: jeff triplett is sanford's mayor. there's been aillations of misconduct by the police department. >> there were mistakes made. we're going to handle that. >> reporter: martin was killed last month by neighborhood watch volunteer, george zimmerman. after following him down this street, the two scuffled and zimmerman shot martin. he told the police it was self-defense. and he was not arrested. frank taaffe was on the crime watch with zimmerman. you think trayvon provoked him? >> personally, yes. >> reporter: martin died a john doe. unclaimed for two days. the family claims because of police red tape. this morning, he is anonymous no longer. >> trayvon martin did matter. >> yeah. >> and i want new york to know that we're not going to stop until we get justice for trayvon. >> reporter: and in just a few hours, josh, trayvon martin's family slated to meet with department of justice officials. that, as the fbi begins to scrutinize that 911 tape we told you about yesterday, that may contain a possible racial slur from the sh

according to an interview with reuters, jeff triplett said he overruled police and prosecutors who did not want to make the calls public. he said the police department was taking a lot of heat and he wanted martin's parents to hear what happened. meantime, nbc news has analyzed the police surveillance videos from the night of trayvon martin's killing that they discovered george zimmerman arrived at the sanford police department 34 minutes after reports of shots fired were made. it was originally reported the video was taken four hours after the shooting. also today, another member of zimmerman's family is coming to his defense. it is his brother robert saying george was not patrolling his neighborhood. he claims that his brother was actually on his way to target. robert also said his brother would be dead if he did not act. >> george was out of breath. he was barely conscious. his last thing he remembers doing was moving his head from the concrete to the grass so that if he was banged one more time, he wouldn't be wearing diapers for the rest of his life and being spoonfed by his broth

he does not have the support right now of the current mayor of the city, jeff triplette. i watched the mayor earlier today as he was sitting side by side with leaders of the naacp as people who live here were coming forward telling stories about how for years that they have had problems with the police force here. he said at that time that there's going to be a lot of work to do to correct some of these problems and tonight might have been the first step that he was talking about. anderson? >> let me ask you about the investigation. because are the local police there and they've been criticized by the family of treyvon martin, obviously the attorney for that family, but are the local police there still investigating this or because the fbi and justice department are investigating, because there's going to be a grand jury, have they taken over the investigation? do we know? >> reporter: the investigation itself is relatively over in terms of what the police are doing. but it's still open in case something else comes up or someone else comes forward to give them more inform

plus, sanford mayor jeff triplett joining us and national your lan league president and ceo mark marielt week during the pope's visit. nbc's mark potter joins us live from havana. "andrea mitchell reports" right here next. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance. our machines help identify early stages of cancer and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life, matter. if i did have an opportunity to meet a cancer survivor, i'm sure i could take something positive away from that. [ jocelyn ] my name is jocelyn, and i'm a cancer survivor. [ mimi ] i had cancer. i have no evidence of disease now. [ erica ] i would love to meet the peop

last night in a 3-2 split vote, the sanford city council, including mayor jeff triplett backed that no-confidence motion against police chief bill lee. >> i could have gone either way. from what i have seen, i've seen better. >> lee's fate now lies in the hand of the city manager. >> the reality is what did chief lee do? did he act inappropriately? has he caused the problem? that's what i'm going to look at. >> reporter: at an naacp forum earlier, some complained about a history of local police intimidation. >> too many young people that have died. >> reporter: as that tension rises, the co-author of the stand your ground law in effect since 2005 is now saying that may need to be clarified. >> nothing is ever finished in the legislature. i learned that. everything can always be readdressed. >> reporter: representative dennis baxley said the law was not intended to cover citizens who pursue suspected threats. if i hear you correctly, you're willing to revisit the language in this law and potentially change it. >> we need to look at the circumstances that occurred and see if some kind of legislatio