ATLANTA George Zimmerman, who became a folk hero to some after he beat a murder rap in the killing of an unarmed black teenager, has been ordered to surrender his weapons after being arrested for a third time for domestic violence.
Mr. Zimmerman, who told the Orlando Sentinel last fall that hes jobless, homeless and broke, was arrested in Lake Mary, Fla.,on Fridaynight for aggravated assault. Although he has had several run-ins with the law since his 2013 acquittal in the killing of Trayvon Martin, this was the first time after the verdict that a judge ordered him to surrender his arms.
Weapons were apparently not involved in the Fridaynight incident, details of which are still sketchy.According to his attorney, Zimmerman was charged for allegedly throwing a bottle of wine at his girlfriend earlier in the week at a residence in Lake Mary, Fla.
The shooting of Trayvon and the subsequent failure of the Sanford, Fla., Police Department to charge Zimmerman polarized America.
Zimmerman encountered the 17-year-old on a rainy February evening and, suspecting him of being a criminal, pursued him into the back of a darkened condo complex. When Trayvon punched and straddled him, Zimmerman pulled out his gun and shot the teenager once in the chest, killing him. A state-appointed prosecutor later indicted Zimmerman, and a year later a six-person jury acquitted him on self-defense grounds.
Zimmermans act and trial raised questions in America about liberalized self-defense laws that critics say seem to allow vigilantism against young black men.
But for many in the gun community, Zimmerman had done nothing wrong, and had, in fact, become a poster boy for the responsible but beleaguered gun owner protecting his neighborhood, and himself, under the law. Last March, he drew well-wishers to an autograph signing at an Orlando gun show, and in 2013 he toured a factory of the gunmaker that made the pistol he used to kill Martin.
But lately, Zimmermans role as gun rights spokesman has become complicated.
In September 2013, the Associated Press reports, Zimmerman's estranged wife, Shellie Zimmerman, called 911 to tell police he had punched her father and was threatening her with a gun.A year later, Zimmerman was arrested on domestic abuse allegations, but charges, as in the first case, were dropped.
A truck driver who said Zimmerman, in a recent road rage incident, threatened Ill kill you, dont you know who I am? noted that there was a gun involved in that incident.
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Gun 'hero' George Zimmerman ordered to surrender arms ...