George Zimmerman was being held without bond Monday on charges including aggravated assault with a weapon after his girlfriend said he pointed a shotgun at her during an argument in Apopka, authorities said.
In addition to the felony charge of aggravated assault with a weapon, Zimmerman, 30, faces misdemeanor charges of domestic battery and criminal mischief in connection with the incident, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies responded at 12:30 p.m. to a 911 call about a disturbance at the home where Zimmerman has been living with his girlfriend Samantha Scheibe, on the 1300 block of Topfield Court, according to the sheriff’s office.
Scheibe told deputies they had a verbal dispute, she asked Zimmerman to leave and he began packing his belongings, which included a shotgun and an AR assault rifle, according an arrest report. Zimmerman cocked the shotgun before he placed it in a single carry case, Scheibe told deputies.
She began to carry out his other items and put them in the living room and outside. Zimmerman became upset and removed the shotgun from the case, and Scheibe told him she was calling police because she was nervous about why he pulled out the gun, the arrest report said.
“Zimmerman then pointed the shotgun at Scheibe for a minute, and asked her if she really wanted to do that,” the report said.
When Scheibe stepped back, Zimmerman smashed a glass coffee table with the butt of the shotgun and told her to leave the home, according to the report.
She was able to get to the front of the house and call 911, but Zimmerman ultimately pushed her out of the home and locked the door, according to the sheriff’s office. He barricaded the door with several pieces of small furniture, the sheriff's office added.
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Scheibe was not injured and no one else was home at the time, Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma said at a news conference.
Zimmerman called 911 from inside the barricaded house to tell his side of the story. He told a dispatcher that his girlfriend had gone crazy on him.
Zimmerman then said he never pulled a gun on his girlfriend, and that it was Scheibe who smashed a table at the home they shared. He also told the dispatcher that Scheibe was pregnant with their child and that she had decided she would raise the child on her own. When Zimmerman started to leave, she got mad, he said.
Lemma said at the news conference that Scheibe wasn't pregnant.
When deputies arrived they used her key to enter the house and pushed through the items that were behind the door, the sheriff’s office said.
Zimmerman was not armed and offered no resistance as deputies took him into custody, Lemma said.
"The easiest way to describe it is rather passive. I mean, clearly he's had the opportunity to encounter situations similar to this in the past,” Lemma said. “Offered no resistance, and cooperated the entire time.”
Zimmerman was taken to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility at about 1 p.m., the sheriff’s office said. He will remain there on no bond pending his first court appearance in the case Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
He is being held in a single-person cell and will be checked on hourly, Lemma said.
Zimmerman was acquitted in July of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the 2012 shooting of Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin.
During his trial Zimmerman was represented by attorneys Mark O’Mara and Don West.
Neither O’Mara nor West is representing Zimmerman now, NBC News reported. It wasn’t immediately known whether Zimmerman has an attorney.
Authorities said they continue to investigate Monday’s incident.
Zimmerman and his estranged wife were involved in a domestic dispute in September just days after Shellie Zimmerman filed divorce papers, but police later said no charges were filed against either of them because of a lack of evidence.
