The disbelief that ricocheted around the nation Monday at Zimmerman's latest high-profile encounter with the law was summed up piquantly by the police chief of Lake Mary, Fla. After answering the 20th media call of the afternoon, Chief Steve Bracknell told a Los Angeles reporter what he really thought of the man acquitted in the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, acknowledged that Zimmerman broke the iPad into pieces before the police arrived. According to witnesses, Zimmerman also punched his father-in-law in the nose. "He's in his car, and he continually has his hand on his gun and saying, 'step closer,'" Shellie Zimmerman tells the dispatcher during the 911 call. “I don’t know what he’s capable of. Lake Mary police swarmed a home Monday afternoon after a 911 call from Zimmerman's estranged wife, Shellie, who told the dispatcher: "I'm really, really afraid. O’Mara, however, insisted on CNN that he did have a gun on him during the entire incident.
– Apparently Zimmerman does not have a friend in his local police chief. Steve Bracknell, who heads the department in Lake Mary, Florida, where Zimmerman lives, agreed with some pretty intense criticisms of the acquitted killer contained in two angry emails he received Tuesday about Zimmerman's recent altercation with his wife. "Zimmerman is a Sandy Hook, Aurora waiting to happen," the emailer, Santiago Rodriguez, asserted, in an email posted online. "Your job is to protect the communities you serve, and you are failing big time." Bracknell responded with a lengthy defense of his department, but then threw in, "Your reference to Sandy Hook..............I agree." (Ellipses his.) Bracknell confirmed the emails' authenticity for Think Progress, but later backpedaled from the remarks, telling WTSP that he only meant that Zimmerman "seems to be involved in incidents" involving guns. In the followup email, Rodriguez called Zimmerman a "ticking time bomb." Think Progress reports that Bracknell replied, "on a personal note....I agree," but that email doesn't appear to be posted online. And on Monday, Bracknell had this to say to an LA reporter, per the Los Angeles Times: "Man, it would be fantastic if you have an apartment out there [in California] for George Zimmerman. This guy is killing me."