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CBS, wtsp.com 8:53 a.m. EDT October 6, 2015

In this handout photo provided by Seminole County Sheriff`s Office, George Zimmerman poses for a mug shot photo after being arrested and booked into jail at the John Polk Correctional Facility November 18, 2013 in Sanford, Florida.(Photo: Seminole County Sheriff`s Office via Getty Images)

ORLANDO, FL-- George Zimmerman responded Sunday to a controversy involving a tweet he retweeted in connection to the death of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old teen whom he fatally shot in 2012,reports CBS affiliate WKMG.

Zimmerman was acquittedin the February 2012 shooting death ofTrayvon, an unarmed black teenager in Florida, in a case that sparked protests and a national debate about race relations.

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On Sunday, Zimmerman posted a statement online saying that the photo in the tweet was blocked on his feed, so he did not see it when he retweeted the tweet.

Zimmerman, now 32, retweeted a photo last week which allegedly included a picture of Trayvon's deceased body. The original tweet also included the caption, "Z-man is a one-man army," according to WKMG.

In the statement, posted to his Twitter page, he says he was simply retweeting words of encouragement from a supporter.

"I did not, and never will knowingly re-tweet a picture of a deceased body," the statement read in part. "I do not want to see or relive the night I was attacked and had to use lethal force to defend my life."

Throughout the 2013 trial, prosecutors and defense attorneys painted starkly different pictures of the then 29-year-old.

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Prosecutors portrayed Zimmerman as a vigilante, frustrated by the break-ins in his community that prompted him to launch a neighborhood watch program.

They said Zimmerman, who had aspirations to be a police officer, profiled the teen as a criminal and shot him "because he wanted to."

Defense attorneys on the other hand portrayed Zimmerman as a concerned community member who was "viciously attacked" when Martin "sucker punched" him and began slamming his head into a concrete sidewalk.

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George Zimmerman addresses controversial Trayvon Martin tweet