Elderly couple forced out of home after tweet claims killer of Trayvon Martin lives there
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An elderly Florida couple have been forced to move into a hotel after their home address was wrongly tweeted as belonging to the man who shot teen Trayvon Martin.
The tweets were traced back to a man in California and the address was also reportedly retweeted by director Spike Lee to his almost 250,000 followers.
The couple, aged 70 and 72, have been harassed with hate mail, been hassled by media and had scared neighbors questioning them since the tweet, their son Chip Humble told the Orlando Sentinel.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fearful for their safety, and hoping to escape the spotlight, the couple have temporarily moved to a hotel.
The confusion seems to stem from the fact the woman's son is named William George Zimmerman and he lived briefly at the address in 1995.
When William Zimmerman pleaded with the man who tweeted the address, the man responded, "Black power all day. No justice, no peace" along with an obscenity.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin in a Sanford gated community on Feb. 26, with emotions and anger running at fever pitch while he remains free.
William Zimmerman said he used his mother and stepfather's address to register a car, get a drivers license and vote when he lived there after college.
"This is really scary, and I'm concerned for my family," William Zimmerman said. "It's scary because there are people who aren't mentally right and will take this information and run with it.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"To endanger people who are innocent because people are angry is not the answer. That's not how we're going to heal. It's not [going] to help the Martin family for someone else to be hurt."