I’m not the only one who has predicted that we will hear and read a LOT about George Zimmerman and that his controversial acquittal in the shooting death of ice-tea-armed, hoodie-wearing Trayvon Martin was just the prelude to someone who’ll be in the news. And now another tidbit: police say he suffered a “minor” gunshot wound in a shooting in Florida. The initial details were murky, but a later report says it was a road rage incident. The first report:
George Zimmerman was injured in a shooting in Lake Mary on Monday afternoon, according to Lake Mary Police Chief Steve Bracknell.
The shooting involved Zimmerman and another man and happened on Lake Mary Boulevard about 12:45 p.m., police said.
According to Bracknell, officers at the scene reported Zimmerman suffered a minor gunshot wound.
“He walked normally into the ambulance, so he wasn’t being helped or nothing,” said witness Ricardo Berrare. “They actually backed up the ambulance next to his driver side so he could walk into the door.”
“The officer was talking to him through the back window because the other one had a hole in it. It was all shattered,” Berrare said.
George Zimmerman was shot and suffered minor injuries in what Lake Mary police called a road rage incident Monday afternoon.
The shooting happened sometime around the 1 p.m. hour on Lake Mary Boulevard and Rinehart Road, police said.
Zimmerman was taken by ambulance to Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford. Bullet holes were seen in his truck as it was towed away from the scene.
It was not immediately clear if the shooter has been caught. Police did not immediately release any other information about the incident.
Traffic has slowed around Lake Mary Boulevard and Rinehart Road as police investigate what led to the shooting.
Zimmerman was last seen in March in a video interview published by his lawyers, in which he said a person in his circumstances could not feel guilty over surviving a confrontation like the one he had with Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old unarmed teen he fatally shot three years ago in Sanford.
Zimmerman has figured in two other incidents that involved police since he was acquitted in the shooting death of Martin. These involved domestic violence. He also sparked great controversy when he tried to cash in his celebrity notoriety selling paintings on eBay. Art critics made it clear that if they sold, it wasn’t because they were works of art.
Another prediction: there will be more George Zimmerman related stories in the future and it’s unlikely that in the end his life will be one that young people will want to emulate.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.