New Video Shows George Zimmerman Shortly After the Trayvon Martin Shooting (Update: Did ABC Doctor the Video?)

It’s surveillance video inside the Sanford, FL police department. ABC News got ahold of it, here it is:

ABC says:

The surveillance video, which was obtained exclusively by ABC News, shows Zimmerman arriving in a police cruiser. As he exits the car, his hands are cuffed behind his back. Zimmerman is frisked and then led down a series of hallways, still cuffed.

Zimmerman, 28, is wearing a red and black fleece and his face and head are cleanly shaven. He appears well built, hardly the portly young man depicted in a 2005 mug shot that until a two days ago was the single image the media had of Zimmerman.

The most important question the video raises is, where are the wounds? Through his lawyer, Zimmerman has said that he suffered a broken nose and wounds on his head, one of which almost needed stitches. The video doesn’t show any of that. It’s possible that the broken nose only showed up in X-Rays later, but any laceration or cut close to requiring stitches would have been very evident.

To ABC again, for a partial explanation:

The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was bleeding from the back of the head and nose, and after medical attention it was decided that he was in good enough condition to travel in a police cruiser to the Sanford, Fla., police station for questioning.

His lawyer later insisted that Zimmerman’s nose had been broken in his scuffle with 17-year-old Martin.

In the video an officer is seen pausing to look at the back of Zimmerman’s head, but no abrasions or blood can be seen in the video and he did not check into the emergency room following the police questioning.

So that explains the lack of blood, sort of. Anyone who has had a cut that comes close to needing stitches though — and I have been in that position myself — knows just how bloody such a cut can get. You generally need a bandage to control the bleeding, and I don’t see one on Zimmerman.

So we have another twist: Did George Zimmerman suffer the wounds that he and the police reported that he suffered?

Update: Thanks to commenter Helen of Troy, here’s the Sanford police report. Here is the officer’s description of Zimmerman immediately after the shooting, and after the officer had disarmed Zimmerman. Click to enlarge.

Update: The Daily Caller takes a closer look.

“A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman,” ABC News reporter Matt Gutman wrote, noting that Zimmerman told police “he shot Martin after he was punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground.”

ABC News reported that Zimmerman appears uninjured in the video. But a still image from the video indicates what appears to be a vertical laceration or scar several inches long.