George Zimmerman's shooter says he acted in self-defense
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The man who shot and slightly injured George Zimmerman in a road rage incident is saying he acted in self-defense.
"I saw a gun and so I shot George Zimmerman," the man reportedly told a bystander who called 911 at the shooter’s request.
The shooting took place Monday afternoon in the Orlando suburb of Lake Mary.
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The bystander said Matthew Apperson looked “visibly shaken” and came up to him screaming, "Please call 911. ... I just shot George Zimmerman."
Police later recovered a handgun from Zimmerman’s truck, and two from Apperson’s.
"He simply maintained that he acted in self-defense," Apperson’s attorney Mark NeJame said Tuesday. "We see everything to suggest that that is correct," he added.
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However, Zimmerman’s camp is denying he even showed him a gun.
"George absolutely denies having shown it, waved, displayed, pointed it," attorney Don West said.
Authorities said Zimmerman did not return fire and flagged down a local officer about the same time Apperson asked the bystander to call 911.
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West said Zimmerman, 31, was driving into a retail center when a car came up behind him, flashing its lights and honking. When Zimmerman tried to leave, West said, Apperson fired a shot through the passenger window.
Zimmerman was briefly hospitalized and released a short time later.
Last September, Apperson said Zimmerman threatened to kill him, asking "Do you know who I am?" during a confrontation in their vehicles. Apperson decided not to pursue charges and police officers were unable to move forward without a license plate number or witnesses.
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"I explained to Matthew that without the tag, witnesses, and/or clear video identifying the driver as George Zimmerman, it might be difficult to prove the alleged suspect was in fact Zimmerman," the Lake Mary police officer wrote in a report last September.
Zimmerman was acquitted in the February 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in a case that sparked protests and a national debate about race relations. The Justice Department later announced it was not bringing a civil rights case against Zimmerman.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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