George Zimmerman's Wife on 911 Tape: 'I Am Really, Really Scared'

Shellie Zimmerman called 911 and reported that her husband assaulted her father.

ByABC News
September 9, 2013, 2:58 PM

Sept. 9, 2013— -- George Zimmerman was released without charges today after his wife called 911 to say Zimmerman punched his father-in-law in the nose and threatened to shoot him and his wife.

Zimmerman, acquitted in July of the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin, claimed that he was acting in a "defensive manner" during the incident, according to police, who later added that they never found a gun on Zimmerman.

Nevertheless, Zimmerman was handcuffed and questioned by police in Lake Mary, Fla., according to Lake Mary Police Chief Steve Bracknell.

Listen to Shellie Zimmerman's 911 Call or Read the Transcript of Her Call to Police

He was later released without charges when his wife and father-in-law refused to press charges or give police a sworn statement. Police said they are reviewing surveillance video from the home and reserve the right to file charges later based on the video.

Police said George Zimmerman volunteered the surveillance videos to investigators.

Shellie Zimmerman called 911 shortly after 2 p.m. today and reported that her husband assaulted her father, Colin Morgan, and was waving a gun around and threatening her and her relatives, according to police in Lake Mary, Fla.

Lake Mary police took the call "extremely seriously" and sent eight units, including officers in tactical gear with ballistic shields, to the home, according to Bracknell.

A Lake Mary police official later said Zimmerman did not have a gun, officers never found a gun and that Zimmerman himself said he never had a gun on him.

"We did not take a gun at all, because there was no reason to take a gun, because his gun was in his truck," Bracknell said.

Shellie Zimmerman, police said, told them she never saw a gun but saw George Zimmerman's hands near where she believed he would have had a weapon.

Shellie Zimmerman Tells Why She Filed for Divorce

In the 911 call, Shellie Zimmerman tells a dispatcher that her husband was in his car raging, adding "he continually has his hand on his gun and he says step closer…" When Shellie Zimmerman trails off the dispatcher asks "step closer and what?" to which Shellie responds "a step closer and he'd shoot us."

Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense after he shot and killed Martin, told police in a statement that he was acting in "a defensive manner" during the incident and did not have his hand on his gun, according to Lake Mary police spokesman Zach Hudson.

Shellie Zimmerman and her father said they do not want to press charges, Bracknell said. Both Shellie's lawyer, Kelly Sims, as well as George Zimmerman's lawyer were at the home, ABC News has learned.

The 911 tapes describe a terrified Shellie Zimmerman. On the call to a police dispatcher she told police that her husband punched her father in the nose, smashed her iPad, cut it with a pocketknife and raged, "one step closer and he'd shoot us."

"I don't know what he's capable of. I am really, really scared," she told the dispatcher.

When police arrived she could be heard on the phone saying, "Dad, get behind a car or something. I don't know if he's going to start shooting at us or not."George Zimmerman Feels 'Invincible,' His Wife Tells ABC NewsThe incident came just days after Shellie Zimmerman told ABC News that she was not sure she "ever really knew" her husband through their seven years of marriage and she felt she was the victim of verbal abuse by him. She also said she believed the not guilty verdict left her husband feeling "invincible" and since then he had been "making some reckless decisions."