George Zimmerman sat down for an interview with Univision, which aired on Sunday night, to give viewers an update on his life after getting acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. He also spoke with CNN’s New Day in an interview that aired Monday morning.
He’s run into some trouble since being acquitted of murder, and Zimmerman says he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition to saying he lives in constant fear and still gets death threats, he even suggested President Obama used him to get votes.
Zimmerman referred to Obama’s comment that Martin, who was shot dead in Dec. 2012, “could have been my son,” alleging he said that to win the sympathy of the public and in turn, get more votes.
Zimmerman called himself a scapegoat for "the government, the President, the attorney general,” CNN reports.
Although he hoped to resume to life as it was before Martin’s death, he said he gets death threats often. “I have a lot of people saying that, you know, they guarantee that they're going to kill me and I'll never be a free man," he said. "I realize that they don't know me. They know who I was portrayed to be."
However, he maintained he will keep trying to change the public’s opinion. "If it takes one person a day at a time to help them realize that's not what this case was about, then that's what I'll do."
He also has no regrets about shooting Martin, who was 17 at the time.
“In my mind between God and me … I know that if I did not act the way I acted, I would not be here,” he told Univision. “When you hit your head repeatedly against the concrete, you have a broken nose, eyes full of blood and tears, you’re not in the position to do much.”
image: Wikimedia Commons
