George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of shooting unarmed teen Trayvon Martin to death in 2012, says he was punched in the face by a Florida restaurant customer who overheard him talking about the killing, according to police.
Zimmerman told police in Sanford that the Sunday evening altercation began inside Gators Riverside Grille after he complimented another customer’s Confederate flag tattoos. A friend of the tattooed man recognized Zimmerman and asked if he was indeed the volunteer neighborhood watchman who fatally shot 17-year-old Martin in 2012.
Zimmerman said he showed his identification to the group, which included the wife of one of them.
At that point, “a large fat man approached,” according to Zimmerman’s statement to police. “You’re bragging about that?” asked the man, identified only as Eddie, according to Zimmerman.
Zimmerman’s statement, which conflicts with what other witnesses told police, becomes confusing at this point. He said Eddie commanded him to leave the restaurant and called him “a n――- lover.” Zimmerman is infamous for killing Martin, who was African-American.
“I am not looking for any trouble,” Zimmerman said he told the man.
With that, he said, the man slugged him in the face. Restaurant staff intervened and Zimmerman called 911. “And he said he’s going to kill me,” Zimmerman told the dispatcher.
Eddie fled on a blue Harley-Davidson motorcycle, the police report said.
A Seminole County sheriff’s officer who questioned witnesses concluded that Eddie, a white man with a blonde beard, “is the primary aggressor in this case,” the police report said. Police said the man was being sought.
Witnesses differed on details. The two men and woman who first spoke with Zimmerman reported seeing no punches thrown. They portrayed Zimmerman as cocky when he approached them.
Joseph Whitmer gave police this account: ”Mr. Zimmerman walks up and says ‘I love your tattoos. My name is George Zimmerman, you know the guy who killed Trayvon Martin?’” Without prompting, Zimmerman took out his ID, according to Whitmer’s statement.
David Worrell told police he asked Zimmerman to leave their table. But another of Worrell’s friends, who is unnamed, “began to exchange words” with Zimmerman, according to the statement. Worrell tried to pull his friend away, but Zimmerman “stuck something in his face” that Worrell knocked away, according to the statement.
Worrell told police that he then left the restaurant with his friends. “The issue he had was when Mr. Zimmerman came to his table and proceeded to brag about how he was the one who killed Trayvon Martin,” the police report said.
Restaurant owner Ed Winters told The Orlando Sentinel there were no punches, though he acknowedged Zimmerman and another man shoved each other.
Gregory Home, Zimmerman’s companion at the restaurant, told a vastly different story. Five men approached their table, he told police, and “began yelling at Mr. Zimmerman and acting in a threatening manner towards him.” Horne said he stepped between Zimmerman and the man who punched him. Horne started recording the argument with his phone, but one of the men threw it. A piece of the phone broke, but Horne said he called 911.
No one has been charged by police.
Zimmerman, who claimed he shot Martin in self defense, has had repeated run-ins with the law since his acquittal.
In November 2013, he was accused of pointing a gun at his girlfriend during an argument. In September 2014, police said he threatened to kill a man during a road rage incident in Lake Mary, Florida. The alleged victim declined to press charges.
In May 2015, Zimmerman said he was the victim in a road rage incident in which another motorist fired a shot at him. Police charged Matthew Apperson with attempted murder.
