Trayvon Martin's case resulted in increased distrust between the police and Sanford's black community. Prior to Lee becoming chief, the department had been accused of protecting relatives of police officers involved in violent incidents with black people. Sanford Police Departmentīill Lee had been chief of the Sanford Police Department for ten months when the shooting of Martin occurred. Zimmerman and his wife moved to The Retreat at Twin Lakes in 2009. Zimmerman's height was shown as 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) and his weight at 200 lb (91 kg) on the Sanford Police Department Offense Report for February 26, 2012, the night of the shooting. Īt the time of his arrest on April 11, 2012, Zimmerman's height was reportedly 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) and his weight 185 lb (84 kg), according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office Inmate Booking record.
In one of his interviews with the police, he said his goal was to become a judge. He had been working toward an associate degree in criminal justice at Seminole State College. At the time of the shooting, Zimmerman was employed as an insurance fraud investigator. George Michael Zimmerman was born in Manassas, Virginia and is the son of Gladys (née Mesa) Zimmerman, born in Peru, and Robert Zimmerman Sr., a retired Virginia magistrate.
In a widely reported trial, Zimmerman was charged with murder for Martin's death, but acquitted at trial after claiming self-defense. Zimmerman, injured during the encounter, claimed self-defense at his trial. Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during a physical altercation between the two. Zimmerman, a 28-year-old man of mixed race, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for his gated community where Martin was visiting his relatives at the time of the shooting. On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American high school student. Second-degree murder, lesser included offense of manslaughter.