Tensions over Trayvon Martin’s shooting death are so high that George Zimmerman’s parents and ailing grandmother have had to go into hiding.
Robert Zimmerman, George’s father, told the
Miami Herald the family is moving from hotel to hotel, where they stay under assumed names and always pay cash to avoid being recognized.
“It’s unimaginable,” said the older Zimmerman, 64, a retired magistrate. “Our lives will never be the same.”
George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., is charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 26 death of Martin, an unarmed black teen. The accused, who is part Hispanic and part white, maintains he acted in self-defense in the explosive case, which has stirred debates about racial profiling and gun use in the United States.
He has been in hiding for his own protection since being released on $150,000 bond. After receiving death threats and having personal information posted online, Robert Zimmerman says he, his wife, and elderly mother-in-law, who has Alzheimer’s disease, have also become fugitives.
“All of a sudden, it’s pack up what you can and leave,” Robert Zimmerman told the Herald. “Staying in this hotel room or that hotel room.”
The father said he has not touched any of the $204,000 supporters donated through a website to assist in his son’s legal defense. But he said life on the run has become a financial strain for the older family members.
The older Zimmermans believe that George will be exonerated at trial. Robert Zimmerman told the Herald that Martin, 17, attacked his son on the night of Feb. 26 as George Zimmerman was trying to find an address to pinpoint his location.
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