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Police officer dismissed over Trayvon Martin shooting targets



A police sergeant in the US state of Florida has been sacked after it was discovered that he was leading a firearms training session with two other officers and a civilian using shooting targets of the slain African-American teenager Trayvon Martin.
Authorities said Ron King, who had been serving with the Cape Canaveral Port Authority since January 2011, was fired on April 12, US media reported on Saturday.
Port Canaveral Interim Chief Executive Officer John Walsh said on Saturday that King had asked the group on April 4 if they wanted to use the targets in their weapons exercise, and they told him “they didn’t think it was appropriate.”
Walsh has apologized publicly to Trayvon's family, and called King's behavior unacceptable, insensitive and unprofessional.
“We want to apologize to the community and the family of Trayvon Martin and don’t feel that this is tolerable or acceptable in any level. It’s something that we’d never want the Port Authority to be involved in and we truly apologize to the families for the pain that they even had to hear about something like this and had to relive their son’s death again,” he said.
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Martin's parents, said, "It is absolutely reprehensible that a high-ranking member of the Port Canaveral Police, sworn to protect and serve Floridians, would use the image of a dead child as target practice."
He added, "Such a deliberate and depraved indifference to this grieving family is unacceptable. The citizens of Port Canaveral deserve better."
On February 26, 2012, neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in Sanford, Florida. Martin was unarmed when he was killed.
Thousands of demonstrators marched across the United States in the wake of a month-and-a-half delay in Zimmerman's arrest. They argued that the case is a clear case of racism.
Martin's family claims Zimmerman targeted their son mainly because he was black.