George Zimmerman punched in the face for bragging at Florida restaurant about killing Trayvon Martin...(Audio of his 911 call)
George Zimmerman was punched in the face at a Florida bar after bragging about killing Trayvon Martin, police said. The former neighborhood watchman who fatally shot the unarmed teen in 2012 said he was clocked during a dustup at the Gators Riverside restaurant in Sanford around 5:00 p.m. Sunday, according to a police report obtained by the Daily News.
But staffs at the restaurant and witnesses countered the big-mouthed, acquitted murderer’s account.
Zimmerman told cops he was placing a takeout order when he stopped to compliment a diner on his tattoos.
During the conversation, Zimmerman introduced himself as “the guy who killed Trayvon Martin” and “pulled out his identification card to brag,” one witness told police officers. “I love your tattoos,” Zimmerman said to the diner, according to another witnesses cited in the police report. “My name is George Zimmerman, you know, that guy who killed Trayvon Martin?”
Zimmerman said that a large fat man wearing an orange shirt approached him and told him, “You better get the f*** out of here you n****r lover, you ain’t welcome here.”
The man, identified as “Eddie,” then punched him in the face.
Zimmerman told the Orlando Sentinel he believes the incident was a miscommunication. He said the man was apparently intoxicated and thought he was Matthew Apperson, who was accused of shooting at Zimmerman during a road-rage confrontation last year. Zimmerman said the man told him to go away and accused him of “shooting George Zimmerman,” prompting the fight.
Yet witnesses and staffers at Gators Riverside told investigators Zimmerman had vocally announced himself in the restaurant as the man cleared on self-defense grounds in the 2012 shooting of Martin.
And that he was never hit in the face.
“If I could tell you more about this guy I would, but that was the extent of the whole thing,” Edward Winters, the owner of Gators Riverside Grille, told The News. “They shoved each other and that was the end.”
Zimmerman initiated contact with one of the men at a family get-together at the restaurant for a 12-year-old girl’s birthday party, Winters said. “He said ‘You don’t know who I am do you?’ And he said, ‘I’m George Zimmerman,’” Winters added.
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.
Since the incident he has had a number of run-ins with the law, including the road rage incident where he was shot by Apperson.
He has also 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.