George Zimmerman placed at least six calls to the police in the weeks before he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, according to documents and recordings that were released by law enforcement officials.

The recordings paint a portrait of a man who seemed compelled to inform police officers of any situation that he deemed troublesome.

The calls included one from Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, reporting to police the fact that children were playing in the streets of the gated community in Sanford, Florida, where the teenage Trayvon Martin was killed. He also placed a call complaining about what he considered to be a rash of low-level crimes in the area. 

Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 26 killing of the teenager. He has pleaded not guilty, saying he shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense. He invoked Florida’s controversial "StandYour Ground" law, which allows citizens to use deadly force against another person if they consider themselves to be in danger. 

Prosecutors in the case as well as Trayvon's parents and their lawyers have contended that the teenager was racially profiled by Zimmerman. Trayvon was Black. Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Peruvian.

The documents reveal that the police in Sanford, Florida, disagreed about whether Zimmerman had sustained a broken nose. However, they all said the shooter had cuts on his head.

A neighbor in the gated community who heard shouts outside her townhome told an investigator that "the bigger" of the two men got up after she heard moans for help and then a gunshot. 

The identity of the person who called for help has been a hotly debated topic. Trayvon's parents have insisted that it was their son who is heard in the 911 calls from neighbors on the night of the killing. Trayvon's cousin, in an interview with the prosecutor's investigator, said "without a doubt on a stack of Bibles" that the cries were those of Trayvon Martin.

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(Photo: Gary Green/The Orlando Sentinel-Pool/Getty Images)