![hoodiemarch3](https://www.gwhatchet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/hoodiemarch3.jpg)
More than 200 protesters marched through Northwest D.C. on Saturday night after a Florida jury freed the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year.
George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who prosecutors had charged with second-degree murder, claimed he had acted in self-defense when he shot Martin. About 75 demonstrators met at U and 9th streets before midnight, the DCist reported, and nearly tripled by the time the crowd reached 18th Street in Adams Morgan.
Protesters chanted “No justice, no peace” and carried signs that read “Trayvon, we will never forget you” and “Stop criminalizing black men.” The march lasted almost two hours and ended about three miles from campus at Columbia Civic Heights Plaza on 14th Street and Park Road.
Zimmerman’s acquittal came after a highly publicized trial that had launched a national discussion on racial profiling. A 29-year-old Hispanic man, Zimmerman told police his actions against Martin, who was black, were protected by a Florida law known as the “stand your ground” law.
The six-member jury deliberated for 16 hours before it delivered its non-guilty verdict.
Demonstrators have also organized vigils Sunday at Meridian Hill Park at 6 p.m. and Howard University at 8 p.m.
Meridian Hill Park, near 15th and W streets, was also the site of protests shortly after Martin was shot in 2012.