George Zimmerman Accused Of Yelling Racial Slurs At Florida Bar, Claims He Was Attacked First

George Zimmerman, the man who was acquitted in 2013 of all charges in the fatal shooting of Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin, is back in the news. Once again, he’s in trouble for another racially-charged incident when he was kicked out of a cigar bar for allegedly using racist language and yelling at one of its waitresses. But Zimmerman claims he was the one who was provoked into such behavior, and he offered his own version of what happened on Wednesday night.

A report from Click Orlando described Wednesday’s incident, where the 33-year-old Zimmerman supposedly became “belligerent” at the Corona Cigar Company in Sanford, Florida. Police officers were called to the bar in response to a separate battery complaint involving someone else in Zimmerman’s party and were in the process of reviewing surveillance video with the bar’s manager. At that time, Zimmerman had reportedly gotten into a furious argument with a waitress, as his friends tried in vain to calm him down.

George Zimmerman was kicked out of a Florida cigar bar after using racial slurs and yelling at a waitress https://t.co/8Ae58ZYn9I pic.twitter.com/9quYaLLzQZ

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) November 11, 2016

The report quoted Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputies as saying the waitress was simply trying to collect the bill from George Zimmerman and his group. Deputies relate that the former neighborhood watchman reacted by snatching the credit card from the waitress’ hand and screaming at her. Before leaving the bar with his friends, Zimmerman allegedly used racially offensive language when speaking to the manager.

“I didn’t know you were a n***** lover.”

Deputies also noted that Zimmerman wasn’t alone in his claimed bad behavior that night, and some of his friends had supposedly used racial slurs when referring to other bar patrons.

After Zimmerman was “trespassed,” or asked by police to leave the premises, he then claimed to have been assaulted inside the bar by an African-American patron. According to Zimmerman, the customer asked him what he was doing at the bar, and when he asked the man to leave him alone, the man responded by hitting him twice on the shoulder. Surveillance videos, however, suggest a completely different story.

A separate report from the Orlando Sentinel shed more light on that part of the George Zimmerman incident, and they identified the African-American customer as 38-year-old Floyd L. Narcisse of Deltona. Based on the bar’s surveillance video, Narcisse had extended his hand, ostensibly to shake hands with Zimmerman. But when Zimmerman refused the gesture, Narcisse “patted him twice on his left arm” in an apparently nonviolent way.

Speaking to the Orlando Sentinel, Narcisse said that George Zimmerman was a regular customer at the bar, and he was trying to make a friendly gesture.

“I was like, ‘Hey, George. How are you?’… and I tapped him on the shoulder. The next thing I know, cops say he wants to press charges. I’m very cordial with the man, but yesterday, he was belligerent. He was yelling…. He was rude to everybody.”

Meanwhile, a report from FOX 35 Orlando suggests that Zimmerman spoke with one of the network’s reporters and asserted that he was the aggrieved party in Wednesday night’s incident. Zimmerman reportedly told FOX 35’s Valerie Boey that he was reacting to “one of his female friends being touched inappropriately.” The complaint has since been forwarded to the state attorney, and it remains to be seen whether charges will be filed.

George Zimmerman first gained widespread attention in February of 2012, when he fatally shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an African-American high school student. Then working as a neighborhood watchman, Zimmerman claimed to have acted in self-defense when he fired at Martin. He was acquitted of murder and manslaughter in 2013, but as The Inquisitr previously reported, he has had more brushes with the law since then, as well as an incident where he was shot at by another driver in a case of road rage.

[Featured Image by Joe Burbank/Getty Images]