From wire reports
ORLANDO, Fla.
In the controversy surrounding the Trayvon Martin shooting, evidence that appeared to support one side last week can tell a different story this week.
A newly enhanced version of surveillance video from the night the teenager was shot in Sanford, Fla., more clearly shows a possible gash or injury on the back of shooter George Zimmerman's head.
ABC News debuted the new video on Monday, in which an apparent wound of some kind can be seen on Zimmerman's head when he turns away from the camera.
The video is an enhanced version of surveillance tape released by the Sanford Police Department last week. It shows Zimmerman being taken into police headquarters after the shooting.
Though legal experts downplayed its importance at the time of its release, the video was taken as evidence that Zimmerman had exaggerated or falsified his self-defense claim.
Zimmerman told investigators in the case that the South Florida teen attacked him, punched him to the ground and slammed his head into the pavement in the moments before he fired the fatal shot.
At ABC News' request, the video was enhanced by Forensic Protection Inc., a California video and audio enhancement firm.
Forensic Protection president Douglas Carner said the video released by police had little so-called "noise" - a term for the grainy, excess pixels that sometimes appear in such video, particularly at night.
Carner told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview Monday that the largest issue with the video was the focus. The cameras were focused on set points inside and outside the police department and not on Zimmerman's head.
Here's how Forensic Protection says it conducted the enhancement:
Carner said they used the badges on officers' uniforms to refocus the video. Once a setting was found at which the badges appeared clearly, they applied it to Zimmerman's head.
Carner compared it to work he's done in bar fight video. In bars, he said, the camera is usually focused on the register.
By digitally refocusing, he says, "the cash register goes out of focus and the fight scene slides into clearer view."
Meanwhile, an attorney for Martin's parents asked the Justice Department on Monday to investigate allegations that relatives of Zimmerman met with law enforcement officials at the police department hours after the shooting.
Lawyer Benjamin Crump said in an interview he has information that "family members" of Zimmerman were at the police department in Sanford the night of the Feb. 26 shooting. Crump also alleged that a meeting took place that evening between Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee and Florida State Attorney Norm Wolfinger.
This story was compiled from reports by The Orlando Sentinel and The Washington Post.
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