Thousands to rally for killed teen, Trayvon Martin, in Florida

SANFORD, FL - Thousands of protesters are expected to rally Thursday evening in Florida for a black teen fatally shot by a neighborhood watch captain.

The rally for 17-year-old Trayvon Martin will be at Fort Mellon Park in downtown Sanford.

The event was originally planned for a 400-seat church, but officials decided to move the rally to make sure there would be room for everyone.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton and Martin's parents will be attending. Before the rally, they'll be meeting with U.S. Justice Department officials.

The neighborhood watch captain, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, has claimed self-defense and has not been arrested. The case is being reviewed by the State Attorney's Office.

Zimmerman once took criminal justice classes at the community college and was practically a one-man neighborhood watch in his gated part of town, calling police close to 50 times over the past eight years to report such things as slow-driving vehicles, strangers loitering in the neighborhood and open garages.

Now, suddenly, people are wondering if Zimmerman is an earnest if somewhat zealous young man who was just looking out for his neighborhood, or a wannabe officer who tried to take justice into his own hands.

He has been at the center of a growing furor over vigilantism, self-defense and racial profiling since he shot and killed Martin, an unarmed black teenager, who was walking through his neighborhood Feb. 26 carrying only a bag of Skittles and an iced tea.

Many black leaders are demanding Zimmerman's arrest.

Florida's Stand Your Ground law on self-defense gives people wide latitude to use deadly force.