The US neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida now fears for his own life, according to a friend of the gunman.
Supporters of the boy and his family staged more protest rallies and prayer vigils across the US, many dressed in "hoodies" like the one Trayvon Martin, 17, was wearing when he was shot dead last month.
His assailant, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, remains in seclusion after receiving death threats and learning of a $10,000 bounty offered by a group called the New Black Panther Party.
Mr Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, has said he acted in self-defence when he shot Mr Martin, who was black, in a gated community in Sanford, Florida, near Orlando, despite an apparent lack of evidence the teenager posed any threat.
The boy's death on 26 February drew little attention at first, but has grown into a rallying cry for African-Americans pointing to his shooting, and the decision by authorities not to prosecute Mr Zimmerman, as a blatant case of racial injustice.
The shooting also has provoked a heated debate over "Stand Your Ground" laws enacted in Florida and other states and cited by Sanford police as the reason Mr Zimmerman has not been arrested. Florida's law allows people to use deadly force in self-defence.
US President Barack Obama commented on Friday, calling the shooting a "tragedy" and saying, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."
A long-time friend of Mr Zimmerman, Joe Oliver, 53, a former television news reporter who is himself black, came to Mr Zimmerman's defence yesterday, denying his friend was a racist and saying Mr Zimmerman cried for days over the shooting.
"He's a caring human being," Mr Oliver told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I mean, he took a man's life and he has no idea what to do about it. He's extremely remorseful about it."
He also suggested there was more to the story than had yet been disclosed.
"What makes all these people who are threatening George any better than the person they think he is?" Mr Oliver said.
"You've got all these people wanting to lynch the man, and they don't know the whole story.
"There are huge gaps that are being filled in and interpreted without evidence," he said.
Late yesterday afternoon in Sanford, about 100 people held a prayer vigil at the gate to the subdivision where the shooting occurred, quietly singing the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome."
Mr Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and an iced tea when he was confronted by Mr Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch captain who later told police he believed the youth looked suspicious.
In Seattle, hundreds packed the Greater Mount Baker Baptist Church in a "Rally for Trayvon." Many of the protesters, some wearing hooded sweatshirts, carried bags of Skittles and cans of iced tea as they later marched to a city park named for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
US Senator Charles Schumer called yesterday for a Justice Department investigation into "Stand Your Ground" laws, adopted first by Florida in 2005 and by at least 16 other states since, to determine if they had led to a rise in gun violence or had hindered prosecutions.
"They're all new. They've been passed very, very quickly and I think the states who passed them, if they find out the real facts, they may decide to repeal them," Mr Schumer said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Mr Sonner said Mr Zimmerman feared he was in danger. He cited a document circulating that bears Mr Zimmerman's photo with the words "Wanted Dead or Alive."
Mr Sonner has also said Mr Zimmerman suffered a broken nose, a gash to his head and had grass stains on his shirt after the confrontation with Mr Martin.
