According to a lawyer representing Shellie Zimmerman, a domestic dispute involving her estranged husband George Zimmerman ensued because George is angry that she is filing for divorce.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Shellie Zimmerman's attorney Kelly Sims said that George unexpectedly arrived at the former couple's home while Shellie was gathering her belongings on Monday and became upset when he realized that she was "flying away."
Sims said his client did not expect her husband to be at the house, and released text messages indicating that Zimmerman agreed not to be present while she retrieved her items from their home in Lake Mary, Fla. Shellie is staying with her parents.
"He knew he wasn't supposed to be there," attorney Kelly Sims said as he detailed the events that occurred during their altercation on behalf of his client, reports HLN-TV.
However, George Zimmerman claimed that his wife was "taking property that was not agreed upon and he began taking pictures and recording the items," according to a police report.
Shellie's attorney denied George's claim, arguing that "There wasn't any dispute over items. There was maybe a dispute over somebody ... finally spreading her wings and saying, 'I'm flying away,'" ABC News reports.
The dispute ended with George Zimmerman briefly in handcuffs and an iPad Shellie Zimmerman said she had been using to videotape events smashed. Florida police said that forensic investigators were unable to extract any video from the iPad. As a result, police are not expected to file charges against either George or Shellie Zimmerman regarding the dispute anytime soon, if at all.
In the wake of the disturbance, neither Shellie nor George Zimmerman pushed to press charges.
"The only thing Shellie wants out of the end of this relationship is for it to end with a whimper and not a bang," Sims said.
"Shellie's desire is to stay as far as away from him as she can for the rest of her days," Sims added. "She lost about 30 pounds since she left George, so things are going great."
According to Sims, the Zimmerman marriage began to fall apart after the former volunteer neighborhood watch captain fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen, during a confrontation in February 2012. He was found not guilty in the death in June, and Shellie Zimmerman claims she separated from him about a month later.
Last week, Shellie reportedly filed for divorce. On Monday, she called 911 to report that George threatened her and her father with a gun and punched her father in the nose.
"He's in his car and he continually has his hand on his gun and he keeps saying 'step closer' and he's just threatening all of us," Shellie Zimmerman said in the call, reports CBS News.
However, she later changed her story, says Lake Mary Police Department spokesman Zach Hudson, confessing that she and her father never saw a gun.
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