George Zimmerman Custody: Shellie Zimmerman Calls 911, Doesn't Press Charges
Police released George Zimmerman Monday without charges after briefly taking him into custody when they received a 911 phone call from his estranged wife, Shellie Zimmerman, claiming her husband was threatening to shoot her and her father-in-law.
Shellie Zimmerman called 911 around 2 p.m. Monday in Lake Mary, Fla., claiming her husband had threatened to shoot her and her father-in-law, Colin Morgan. Additionally, Shellie Zimmerman claimed her husband assaulted her father and threatened other relatives.
"He's in his car and he continually has his hand on his gun, and he's saying, 'Step closer.' He's just threatening all of us with his firearm," Shellie Zimmerman said on the 911 tape. Shellie Zimmerman is the estranged wife of George Zimmerman; she filed for divorce last week.
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"I'm really, really afraid," Shellie Zimmerman can be heard telling Lake Mary, Fla. police on the 911 tape. Shellie Zimmerman goes on to say that her husband accosted her father by punching him on the nose, allegedly knocking his glasses to the floor. She additionally claims that Zimmerman took her iPad out of her hands and smashed it before getting in his truck.
"I don't know what he is capable of. I'm just really scared," Shellie Zimmerman told the 911 dispatcher.
Although Zimmerman was reportedly handcuffed and questioned by the police following Monday's incident, he was released later in the afternoon after Shellie Zimmerman and her father refused to press charges or give an official statement to police.
"Shellie Zimmerman has declined prosecution [after consulting with her attorney]," Lake Mary Police Chief Steve Bracknell said Monday, according to CNN. Robert Zimmerman, brother to George, tweeted shortly after the temporary detention that the public "not jump to conclusions" and "wait for the facts, & to avoid speculation."
In June, George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a Sanford teenager who was shot by Zimmerman after they got into an altercation in a gated community in February 2012. Zimmerman's trial and verdict resulted in nationwide protests against Florida's gun laws and the argument held by some that Zimmerman was racially profiling Martin, who was unarmed at the time of his death.
Two months after Zimmerman's acquittal, his wife announced that she was filing for divorce, saying in an interview with ABC News that she feels she never really knew her husband after seven years of marriage, and that he had developed an "invincible" mentality after his trial that caused him to make sometimes reckless decisions. In late August, Shellie Zimmerman pleaded guilty to perjury after she lied about her and her husband's finances in an April 2012 bond hearing.
Following his acquittal, Zimmerman has appeared in the news multiple times. The first appearance came when he reportedly saved a family from an overturned vehicle in late July. He has also been stopped twice for speeding, once in Texas and once in Florida.
