Police said Tuesday that they recovered a handgun from George Zimmerman in their investigation into a Monday shooting incident involving him and another man.
Lake Mary, Florida Police spokeswoman Bianca Gillett said in a news conference that the agency had obtained two search warrants for vehicles involved in the shooting incident.
A search warrant for Zimmerman’s vehicle hadn’t been executed yet, Gillett said, but police did recover a Glock handgun from the former neighborhood watch volunteer. Gillett said Zimmerman legally owned that firearm.
Police searched a vehicle belonging to Matt Apperson, the other man involved in the shooting, Gillett said. They recovered a .40-caliber Glock and a .357 revolver with a single expended shell casing, according to the police spokeswoman.
Attorneys for Apperson and Zimmerman presented conflicting accounts of the shooting incident in Monday interviews with local TV station WFTV. Don West, the attorney for Zimmerman, said that his client did not show, wave or point a gun during the confrontation. But Apperson’s attorney, Mark NeJame, insisted that his client shot at Zimmerman in self-defense.
Prior to the news conference, Lake Mary police released half of a 911 call made by a third party on Apperson’s behalf.
“A guy right here just said he had to shoot at someone through his window so he wants the police to come,” the unidentified caller said, according to a recording posted by The Orlando Sentinel.
“He said it was George Zimmerman,” the caller added later.
The two men have a history of tension. In September, Apperson told Lake Mary police that a man he believed was Zimmerman pulled up next to him in a truck and said “Do you know who I am?” before threatening to kill him.
The shooting also marks the latest in a string of violent incidents and bizarre behavior Zimmerman has been involved in and exhibited since he was acquitted of murder in the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.
Gillett said in the news conference that police still hadn’t scheduled interviews with Apperson and Zimmerman or determined whether any charges would be filed. No one has been arrested in connection with the shooting.
