Zimmerman accused of domestic violence
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Women tells 911 that man is breaking things with gun because she asked him to leave
- NEW: On another call, man says woman broke things, his gun was locked up
- George Zimmerman was charged with one felony, two misdemeanors
- He will appear before a judge on Tuesday afternoon
Zimmerman, who was
acquitted earlier this year of murdering teenager Trayvon Martin, was
arrested after the incident at the home of Samantha Scheibe, Lemma said.
He also was charged with two misdemeanors -- domestic violence battery
and criminal mischief -- in connection with the same incident, Lemma
said.
Zimmerman is being held in jail without bail and will make his first appearance in front of a judge Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Differing 911 calls
Deputy: Zimmerman barricaded door
According to a police
report on the incident, Scheibe said that after an argument Zimmerman
broke a table with a shotgun then pointed it at her "for a minute."
Scheibe called 911 at 12:30 E.T., Lemma said.
On a 911 call recording
released by police, a woman can be heard telling authorities: "He's
inside my house breaking all my (things) because I asked him to leave."
The woman then says to
someone at the house, "I'm doing this again? You just broke my glass
table. You just broke my sunglasses and you put your gun in my freaking
face and told me to get the (expletive) out."
A man is heard telling
her to calm down, but then she tells the dispatcher that the man just
pushed her out of the house and locked the door.
On a separate 911 call, a
man calls to report that his girlfriend was "for lack of a better term,
going crazy on me" and throwing his things out. The caller says the
woman is outside with police.
When asked why he is calling, the man says, "I just want everyone to know the truth."
He says he never pulled a firearm and that it is in a bag, locked. He claims she was the one who broke the table.
When deputies arrived at
the house, Scheibe gave them a key. When they pushed open the door --
which was blocked by several small pieces of furniture -- they found
Zimmerman, who was sitting and unarmed, Lemma said. He was passive and
cooperative, Lemma said.
The sheriff's office was
seeking a search warrant to look for two guns deputies believed were
inside the home, he said. According to the police report, Zimmerman had
locked up the guns before police arrived.
Recent contact with authorities
This is one of several
brushes that Zimmerman has had with law enforcement since he was
acquitted this year of murder and manslaughter in the 2012 shooting
death of teenager Trayvon Martin.
Earlier this month,
police in Lake Mary, Florida, said no charges would result from an
alleged domestic dispute in September between George Zimmerman and his
estranged wife, Shellie Zimmerman.
Shellie Zimmerman said in September that she has doubts about his innocence in the Trayvon Martin case.
Since his acquittal in
the Martin case, Zimmerman also has been stopped for speeding twice. He
was pulled over the first time in Forney, Texas, in July and told the
police officer he had a concealed weapon permit and a gun in his glove
compartment. The officer wrote on his incident report that he gave
Zimmerman a verbal warning.
Zimmerman was pulled
over in early September going 60 mph in a 45-mph zone in Lake Mary and
received a $256 ticket. He was not carrying a weapon at the time.
National headlines
Zimmerman fatally shot
Martin in the Sanford neighborhood where Zimmerman and Martin's father
lived in February 2012. Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, had a confrontation
with the unarmed African-American teen after calling police to report a
suspicious person, and he said he shot Martin, 17, in self-defense.
Zimmerman was acquitted by a six-person jury in July on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
The high-profile case sparked a heated nationwide discussion of race as well as debate o
