RavenSky
The Doctor's Wife
There's another possibility that fits the evidence.
It is possible Zimmerman did not follow Martin but instead hurried to cut him off. Zimmerman said in the 911 call that Martin appeared to be heading for the back entrance. If Zimmerman ran between the buildings and down the path while Martin was lingering at the crosswalk trying to see where the creepy guy from the car was, they could have missed each other. Then when Martin resumes his walk home, he sees Zimmerman coming back up the sidewalk looking for him. Martin does a quick 180 and heads back to the top of the T while telling Jeantel the guy from the car is right behind him. Zimmerman recognizes Martin and speeds up. Martin shouts "Why are you following me?", Zimmerman shouts "What are you doing here?", the phone is dropped and the fight breaks out.
One of the residents reported hearing running footsteps coming from the direction of the back entrance (also the direction of Martin's house) and going toward the T intersection, and the phone was found closer to Martin's house than his body was.
It doesn't really matter, though. What matters is that all the evidence we have points to Martin trying to avoid a confrontation and Zimmerman trying to create one. Add to that Zimmerman's history of resorting to violence, Martin's legitimate fear for his life and safety, and you get a teenager rightfully defending himself from a man wrongfully assaulting him.
crjq but exactly what you said... all of it. This scenario is also the only one that fits with Zimmerman's blatant lie that he was running around looking for addresses in a community he claimed to know so well. I believe he was going down the street towards the back entrance with every intent to cut Trayvon off, but knew that would not sound good to the police.