Three years after teen Trayvon Martin was fatally shot by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., setting off a national debate on race and gun laws, the Department of Justice announced Monday it had concluded that there is not enough evidence to bring civil rights charges in the case. 
 
 Attorney General Eric Holder called the case "a devastating tragedy," in a press release. 
 
 "It shook an entire community, drew the attention of millions across the nation, and sparked a painful but necessary dialogue throughout the country," Holder said. "Though a comprehensive investigation found that the high standard for a federal hate crime prosecution cannot be met under the circumstances here, this young man's premature death necessitates that we continue the dialogue and be unafraid of confronting the issues and tensions his passing brought to the surface. We, as a nation, must take concrete steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future." 
 
 Federal civil rights charges are difficult to press, let alone get convictions for. In its press release about the decision, the lack of charges against Zimmerman are said to be a result of being unable to meet the standard of proving that the "defendant knew his acts were unlawful, and committed those acts in open defiance of the law." 
 
 DOJ officials said they would have had to have proven that Zimmerman approached Martin "in a threatening manner before the fatal shooting because of Martin's race." 
 
 Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division said: "Our decision not to pursue federal charges does not condone the shooting that resulted in the death of Trayvon Martin and is based solely on the high legal standard applicable to these cases." 
 
 In a statement released through their attorney, Martin's family thanked the DOJ for their "extensive and thorough investigation into the killing of our son." 
 
 "Although we are disappointed in these findings, it has steeled our resolve to continue traveling the country with the message of the Trayvon Martin Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting our youth and empowering those who demand justice and peace," the family said. 
 
 On Feb. 26, 2012, Martin was walking back from a convenience store after purchasing a pack of Skittles candy and iced tea when Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, confronted him. The 17-year-old was visiting his father's fiancée at The Retreat at Twin Lakes community in Sanford with his father, and was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. 
 
 Zimmerman told police immediately after the incident he killed the teen in self-defense after a scuffle. He was taken into custody but was released without charges being filed. The police chief in Sanford, Bill Lee, who later resigned, said Zimmerman was not arrested because his story held up under Florida's now much-debated "Stand Your Ground" laws. 
 
 About a month later, the story started making national headlines, as it was revealed that Martin was black and unarmed and that Zimmerman faced the prospects of no legal penalty. Media began reporting Zimmerman as being white, but his family insisted he was Latino. 
 
 On March 19, 2012, the Justice Department announced it would open an investigation into the case. 
 
 Attorney General Eric Holder expressed personal interest in the case, saying at the time: "At every level of today's Justice Department -- preventing and combating youth violence and victimization is, and will continue to be, a top priority." 
 
 After details of the incident began to leak - including 911 tapes and videos of Zimmerman in custody - as well as several back-and-forths about criminal charges from state and local officials, special prosecutor Angela Corey announced on April 11, 2012, that Zimmerman was being charged with second-degree murder in the shooting and that he was in police custody. 
 
 He was acquitted of murder charges on July 14, 2013, in a case that divided an all-female jury panel and set off nationwide protests. 
 
 The national race debate that the Trayvon Martin case began was later further inflamed by the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the chokehold death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y., among other cases. 
 
 The Department of Justice also opened a civil rights investigation into each of those cases. It declined to press charges against former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the case of the Michael Brown shooting. The decision regarding the Eric Garner case is still open. 
 
 Zimmerman has since slipped into relative obscurity, and has had several other run-ins with police, mostly involving domestic disturbances. ||||| Story highlights "We will never, ever forget what happened to our son," Trayvon Martin's family says 
 
 George Zimmerman was acquitted on a criminal charge of second-degree murder 
 
 Federal authorities had investigated whether to charge him based on hate crime law 
 
 Washington (CNN) No civil rights charges will be brought against George Zimmerman in the February 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday, citing what it said was insufficient evidence. 
 
 Zimmerman was acquitted of criminal charges in 2013 in the killing of the 17-year-old Martin, who was black. 
 
 "Though a comprehensive investigation found that the high standard for a federal hate crime prosecution cannot be met under the circumstances here, this young man's premature death necessitates that we continue the dialogue and be unafraid of confronting the issues and tensions his passing brought to the surface," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a news release. "We, as a nation, must take concrete steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future." 
 
 Justice Department prosecutors and officials from the FBI met with Martin's family on Tuesday to inform them of the decision, the department said. 
 
 In a Tuesday afternoon statement, the family thanked the Justice Department for its investigation and "millions of people around the world" who supported them. 
 
 Read More ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says George Zimmerman will not face federal civil rights charges in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. 
 
 The department announced its decision Tuesday, saying that there was not enough evidence to bring federal civil rights charges, which would have required proof that the killing was motivated by racial animosity. 
 
 Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted of second-degree murder in July 2013. He has said he shot Martin in self-defense during a confrontation inside a gated community in Sanford, Florida. 
 
 The case created a national conversation about race and self-defense gun laws. Martin, who was unarmed when he was killed, was black. The teen's relatives have accused Zimmerman of starting the fight and racially profiling Martin. . ||||| While the public waits for a Justice Department announcement over two separate investigations spurred by the summer shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, the department announced today it is closing its investigation into the killing of Trayvon Martin. 
 
 Justice Department officials met with Martin's family today, and were told that they will not be filing charges against George Zimmerman, who shot the 17-year-old after a confrontation in 2012. Thursday marks three years to the day since Martin was killed. 
 
 Federal prosecutors concluded there is not sufficient evidence to prove Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., intentionally violated Martin's civil rights. 
 
 "Although the department has determined that this matter cannot be prosecuted federally, it is important to remember that this incident resulted in the tragic loss of a teenager's life," Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division said. "Our decision not to pursue federal charges does not condone the shooting that resulted in the death of Trayvon Martin and is based solely on the high legal standard applicable to these cases." The case sparked intense discussions over race in America because Martin was walking to his home with only Skittles and an iced tea in his hands. 
 
 Florida prosecutors tried to convict Zimmerman of state-level murder and manslaughter charges, but in July 2013 a jury acquitted him, saying prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to prove their case. 
 
 One juror -– the only minority on the all-female jury –- later told ABC News that "as the law was read to me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can't say he's guilty." 
 
 "You can't put the man in jail even though in our hearts we felt he was guilty," she said. "But we had to grab our hearts and put it aside and look at the evidence." 
 
 In Sanford, race-related tensions had been simmering for nearly a century, but Martin's death "was the proverbial 'straw that broke the camel's back,'" bringing "those issues to the surface," the new Sanford police chief, Cecil Smith, recently told federal officials. 
 
 After Martin was killed, Holder sat down his own teenage son to explain that -- as unfair as it may be -- young black men must often interact with police in a different way than others, he told a convention in April 2014. It was "a conversation I hoped I'd never have to have," Holder added. 
 
 As media attention mounted over Martin's death, protests grew across the country calling for justice. The city of Sanford now says a police department had not been scrutinized like that by the press, religious organizations, social activists and the broader public since Los Angeles police beat Rodney King in 1991. 
 
 Zimmerman was not a police officer and the neighborhood watch program he was a part of was independent from local police. 
 
 Many accused Zimmerman of discriminating against Martin –- essentially taking action against the teenager and ultimately killing him because Martin was black. Zimmerman is Hispanic. 
 
 The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and FBI opened an investigation into the case, noting "experienced federal prosecutors" would determine "whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation" of federal law. In a statement, the department noted there are "limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction." 
 
 Privately and publicly, Justice Department officials have been telegraphing all along that they were unlikely to file charges against Zimmerman. And in November 2013, Holder said the case against Zimmerman "in substantial part was resolved" with his acquittal months earlier. 
 
 Nevertheless, federal officials have insisted their civil-rights probe would be thorough and complete. Several months ago –- nearly two years into the Justice Department's investigation –- Holder said federal investigators were still seeking to interview certain witnesses "as a result of some recent developments." 
 
 More recently, Holder has said he hoped to announce the findings of the Zimmerman and Ferguson-related probes before he leaves office, which could happen in a matter of weeks, depending on when the U.S. Senate confirms his successor. 
 
 Holder has said then when a decision is announced in the Zimmerman case, it will be accompanied by "as much information" as possible detailing the Justice Department's findings. 
 
 In the Ferguson case, the department is currently conducting two probes into the matter. 
 
 A criminal investigation will try to determine whether then-officer Darren Wilson used unreasonable force and intentionally violated Michael Brown's civil rights when he shot the unarmed teenager in August. The second probe - though not criminal in nature –- will look more broadly into whether the Ferguson police department has routinely engaged in a "pattern or practice" of unlawful and discriminatory policing. 
 
 A state grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, declined to indict Wilson in Novembe4 2014. Many expect the Justice Department will not be able to bring federal charges against Wilson, but will take action against the local police department. 
 
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– George Zimmerman continues to get into minor scrapes with the law, but he's going to avoid a major one: The Justice Department has decided not to bring civil rights charges against him in the death of Trayvon Martin, reports AP. It's not a huge surprise given that the threshold for convictions in such cases is even higher than in criminal trials, and Zimmerman was famously acquitted of murder charges. The department concluded the evidence just wasn't there, report ABC and CBS. To get a conviction, the feds would have to prove that Zimmerman acted with "an added element of bias" when he killed the unarmed black teenager. As CNN explains, "proving that a person attacked someone is one thing. Proving what was going through their mind when they did it—especially if the other person is dead—is much harder." Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder has previously acknowledged it would be a tough standard to meet.