George Zimmerman Parents Receiving ‘Enormous’ Death Threats [Video]
George Zimmerman’s parents have been receiving death threats.
George Zimmerman has been living in hiding for some time because of threats on his own life, and his parents are now staying somewhere else instead of their Orlando, Fla., area home as well for the same reason.
The couple told Barbara Walters of ABC News that they haven’t seen their son since he left the courthouse for an undisclosed location after the not guilty verdict was rendered. They don’t know where he is or has been living and are reluctant to speak to him via cell phone because they’re afraid the line might be tapped.
As virtually everyone across the country (and the world perhaps) knows, George Zimmerman, 29, a former neighborhood watch captain, was put on trial for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, 17, on February 26, 2012, after confronting the teenager as he walked back to the house where he was staying in a gated community outside of Orlando, Florida. Zimmerman,who is Hispanic, entered a plea of not guilty on self-defense grounds and went on trial in a Seminole County courtroom starting on June 24. After about 16 hours of deliberation, the six-person, all-female jury Saturday night found him not guilty of both second degree murder and manslaughter.
Gladys Zimmerman told Walters that there have been many death threats made on social media. Her husband Robert added that in addition to the threats on their son, “We have had an enormous amount of death threats. George’s legal counsel has had death threats, the police chief of Sanford, many people have had death threats.”
As far as the aftermath of the controversial not guilty verdict, Mrs. Zimmerman said that “This is America, and we went through all of this with the judicial system… They wanted an arrest for my son. They got an arrest. Now lets, you know, find a verdict… now they have a verdict…. He went through the whole process they were pushing for, and now they are not happy with the verdict, and I pray. I pray for them, for God to touch their heart.”
To Trayvon Martin’s parents, she said “We are deeply sorry for this tragedy… and we pray for Trayvon Martin to be in a better place. He is always in our prayers.”
