George Zimmerman’s wife calls 911, citing gun threat

LAKE MARY, Fla. – The sobbing wife of George Zimmerman called 911 on Monday to report that her estranged husband was threatening her with a gun and had punched her father in the nose, but hours later she decided not to press charges against the man acquitted of all charges for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin.

Police officers in Lake Mary, Fla., were still investigating the encounter as a domestic dispute, but no charges had been filed as of Monday night. Shellie Zimmerman left the house after being questioned by police. George Zimmerman remained there into the early evening and his attorney denied any wrongdoing by his client. George Zimmerman was not arrested.

Shellie Zimmerman, 26, who has filed for divorce, initially told a 911 dispatcher that her husband had his hand on his gun as he sat in his car outside the home she was at with her father. She said she was scared because she wasn’t sure what the 29-year-old Zimmerman was capable of doing. Hours later she changed her story and said she never saw a firearm, Lake Mary police Chief Steve Bracknell said.

For the time being, “domestic violence can’t be invoked because she has changed her story and says she didn’t see a firearm,” Bracknell said.

Police spokesman Zach Hudson said Zimmerman was released from investigative detention at around 6:30 p.m. and “he just walked back into the house.”

“Right now he’s not a suspect in anything per se, but we’re still viewing the video and trying to ascertain what new information that may yield,” he said.

On the 911 call, Shellie Zimmerman is sobbing and repeating “Oh my God” as she talks to a police dispatcher. She yells at her father to get inside the house, saying Zimmerman may start shooting at them.

“He’s threatening all of us with a firearm … He punched my dad in the nose,” Shellie Zimmerman said on the call. “I don’t know what he’s capable of. I’m really scared.”

She also said he grabbed an iPad from her hand and smashed it.

Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, said his client never threatened his estranged wife and her father with a gun and never punched his father-in-law. Shellie Zimmerman had collected most of her belongings Saturday from the house, which is owned by her parents, where she and George had both been staying until she moved out. She had returned unexpectedly Monday to gather the remaining items. Emotions got out of control, O’Mara said, but neither side is filing charges against the other.