Updated at 6:09 p.m. ET: George Zimmerman has been taken into custody and will be charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, authorities announced Wednesday.
"We did not come to this decision lightly," Angela Corey, the special prosecutor appointed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to re-examine the case, said at a news conference in Jacksonville, Fla. Corey had previously announced that she wouldn't take the case to a grand jury, which took first-degree murder off the table.
Corey said she decided last week to seek the charge but needed several days to make sure all details were in order. She said she had informed Martin's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton. Under Florida law, Zimmerman, 28, must be taken before a judge within 24 hours of his return to Seminole County, where he has acknowledged he shot and killed Martin, 17, in the town of Sanford on Feb. 26.
Zimmerman is being represented by Mark O'Mara, an Orlando lawyer and former prosecutor, after his previous attorneys said Tuesday that they had lost touch with their client and were withdrawing from the case.
Authorities in Sanford — began preparing early in the day for public reaction to the announcement. Several counties in the region activated their emergency operations centers and were on heightened alert, NBC News' Kerry Sanders reported from Sanford, while Seminole County sheriff's deputies spent Wednesday morning setting up barricades along the booking area for new inmates at the county jail, NBC station WESH of Orlando reported.
Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother is Peruvian, says he shot Martin, who was black, in self-defense after following him in a gated community in Sanford. Police questioned Zimmerman but decided against pressing charges.
The lack of an arrest or charges had sparked protests nationwide, with critics alleging that Zimmerman confronted Martin because of his race. Zimmerman's supporters deny that.
A federal civil rights investigation is also under way, but U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesdaythat the Justice Department had to meet a "high bar" to bring any charges.
The main federal role is to "support the state in its ongoing investigation," Holder told reporters Wednesday morning in Washington. At the same time, he said, the Justice Department is conducting its "own thorough and parallel investigation" to try to resolve the case "in as fair and complete a way and as quickly as we can."
Finally he is arrested. Now I hope that justice can go forward whichever way it may swing.