A week after Shellie Zimmerman filed for divorce from George Zimmerman, telling the world that he was verbally abusive toward her, she called 911 on Monday afternoon and reported that Zimmerman had punched her father in the nose and was threatening them with a gun—but then Shellie declined to press charges, according to police.
Shellie can be heard in a 911 call released by police in Lake Mary, Florida, telling the dispatcher that George had “his hand on his gun and he keeps saying step closer.”
“Step closer and what?” the dispatcher asks.
“And he’s going to shoot us,” Shellie Zimmerman replies.
But about 90 minutes after that call, Lake Mary Police Chief Steve Bracknell confirmed that Shellie Zimmerman and her father, David Dean, had signed paperwork declining to press charges.
“They both have declined to press charges against George,” Bracknell said. “We have no victim, no crime.”
Apparently the Lake Mary house on Sprucewood Drive where the incident occurred was where George and Shellie lived during his high-profile trial for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Police indicated that Zimmerman, who was not detained and was not in custody, was cooperating with police, and they would document the incident thoroughly in case Shellie or her father changed their minds.
During the 911 call, Shellie says her husband punched her father, leaving a mark on his face.
“He’s shaking, he says he feels like he’s going to have a heart attack, his nose might be broken,” she said.
“I’m really, really afraid,” Shellie Zimmerman said. “I don’t know what he’s capable of. I’m really, really scared.”
During the call, she can be heard warning her father to stay away from George: “Dad get inside the house, George might start shooting at us.”
Sprucewood Road was soon flooded with media after news broke that Zimmerman was in custody. About 70 minutes after the 911 call, Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, arrived at the scene.
The entire incident seemed to confirm statements Shellie made last week during an interview with ABC News, when she said the acquittal has made him feel “invincible” and led him to make “some reckless decisions.” But once again Zimmerman got the message that he could do whatever he wanted and not have to face any consequences.
Shellie, 26, called him “selfish” and said that after almost seven years of marriage she doesn’t think she ”ever really knew him at all.”
She said that after the stresses of the trial, her life is now shattered.
“I stood by my husband through everything and I kind of feel like he left me with a bunch of broken glass that I’m supposed to now assemble and make a life…It’s just heartbreaking,” she said.
She said he was verbally abusive toward her, hurting her “emotionally, but never physical.”
“I have a selfish husband. And I think George is all about George,” she said. “I think I’m realizing that I have been married to a person for almost seven years, and I don’t think that I ever really knew him at all.”
George has stayed in the headlines since his July acquittal of Martin’s death, being pulled over by police for speeding on two separate occasions.
Shellie Zimmerman said he has only spent three or four nights in their home since the trial before she moved out in mid-August.
Zimmerman had successfully kept his hideout a secret for the past year—but that ended today when the street was swarmed with news trucks and helicopters circled overhead on what had been a quiet residential street near Seminole State College.
