Trayvon Targets Cop Blames Politics For Controversy, Offers Most Offensive ‘Apology’ Ever [Video]

Sgt. Ron King, who was recently fired for planning to use Trayvon Martin inspired shooting targets in a training exercise, has taken to YouTube to “apologize” to the Martin family while simultaneously saying both he and the slain teen’s parents have been “used” and “victimized.”

The sale of the so-called “Trayvon targets” was incredibly controversial in the wake of the unarmed teen’s murder, and the discovery that police were being trained using them was a subsequent media firestorm.

King was terminated from his position with a Florida police department in Port Canaveral, and lawyer for the Martin family Benjamin Crump said of the use of Trayvon Martin’s likeness in target practice:

“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. Such a deliberate and depraved indifference to this grieving family is unacceptable.”

In the video, King begins immediately by suggesting the true insult was done not only to a grieving family, but to himself as well for being used as a pawn in a “political game.” King explains, beginning:

“I would like to start my statement by first apologizing to the family of Trayvon Martin for being used as a pawn in somebody’s political agenda.”

King admits to buying and planning to use the Travyon targets before he was reported to superiors, but he seems to think that is perfectly okay:

“As a result of last year’s Trayvon Martin shooting, a company offered for sale a target of a faceless silhouette wearing a hoodie with his hands in his pockets, one of which was holding two objects, these objects in the hand were non-threatening and the target was something that I viewed as a no-shoot situation … While others used it as a novelty, I view it as a tool for scenario based firearms training. Although to date, the targets have never been used, I did possess the targets for those training reasons.”

King maintains that the firing was part of a personal vendetta, and seems to accept no genuine responsibility for acquiring the Trayvon targets — which featured a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea, the items purchased by Martin shortly before his murder.