George Zimmerman was punched in the face at a Florida bar after bragging about killing Trayvon Martin, officials and witnesses said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/zimmerman-punched-bragging-killing-trayvon-martin-article-1.2739089
The former neighborhood watchman said he was clocked by a drunken diner who mistook him for someone else at the Gators Riverside Grille in Sanford around 5:00 p.m. Sunday, according to a police report obtained by the Daily News.
“This man just punched me in the face,” Zimmerman told a 911 dispatcher. “He said he was going to kill me. You need to send three or four cops.”
But staff at the restaurant and witnesses countered the acquitted murderer’s account and said the incident was nothing more than a shoving match that stemmed from Zimmerman bragging about his notorious past.
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“They shoved each other and that was the end,” Gators Riverside Grille owner Edward Winters told The News.
A TUESDAY, NOV. 19, 2013, FILE POOL PHOTO
George Zimmerman (seen in November 2013) reported he was punched in the face at a Florida restaurant over the weekend. (Joe Burbank/AP)
“He said, ‘You don’t know who I am, do you?’ And Zimmerman said, ‘I’m George Zimmerman,’” Winters added.
Witnesses told investigators Zimmerman announced himself in the restaurant as the man cleared on self-defense grounds in the 2012 shooting of Martin.
Zimmerman, who recently auctioned off the 9-mm. handgun he used to kill the teen for $250,000, was acquitted of shooting the unarmed 17-year-old in a 2013 trial.
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The 32-year-old complimented a man’s Confederate flag tattoo and then started talking about Martin.
911 Audio: George Zimmerman punched in the face for bragging at Florida restaurant about killing Trayvon Martin
NY Daily News
“You’re bragging about that?” a man said as he approached the group.
Zimmerman told the Orlando Sentinel Thursday that his drunken assailant, identified in the police report as “Eddie,” thought he was Matthew Apperson, the man accused of shooting at Zimmerman during a road-rage confrontation last year.
“You better get the f--- out of here you n----r lover, you ain’t welcome here,” the man told Zimmerman before punching him and breaking his glasses.
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The man then fled on a blue Harley Davidson motorcycle.
UNDATED FILE FAMILY PHOTO. AP PROVIDES ACCESS TO THIS HANDOUT PHOTO TO BE USED SOLELY TO ILLUSTRATE NEWS REPORTING OR COMMENTARY ON THE FACTS OR EVENTS DEPICTED IN THIS IMAGE.
Zimmerman was punched for bragging about killing Trayvon Martin in 2012, according officials and witnesses. (Anonymous/AP)
“He told me he was going to kill me, he told me he’d f---ing shoot me, he punched me in the face,” Zimmerman told the 911 dispatcher.
Since the death of Martin, Zimmerman has had a number of high-profile run-ins with the law, including the road rage incident where he was shot by Apperson.
He has been arrested twice in recent years for domestic incidents, including last January when he reportedly threw a wine bottle at his then-girlfriend’s head.
The woman later recanted her story and charges against Zimmerman were dropped.