So Zimmerman has both trend of violence, and of claiming he was defending himself.

[According to the Orlando Sentinel, in 2005]

The woman reported Zimmerman had arrived at her home Aug. 8 and asked to talk. Later, when she asked him to leave, she said, he insisted on staying and demanded documents she had.

The woman said she offered to drop the papers off the following day, but Zimmerman became upset, took her cellphone and shoved her. A fight ensued, she said, and her dog bit Zimmerman’s cheek.

Zimmerman filed his own petition the day after his ex-fiance’s, in which he claimed that she had been the aggressor in the fight. He said she called him Aug. 8 and invited him to spend the night.