By Karen Brooks
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - George Zimmerman, a volunteer watchman whose acquittal in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin led to protests, was pulled over by police in Texas on Sunday for speeding, officials said on Wednesday.
Zimmerman told the officer that he had a weapon in his glove compartment and was going "nowhere in particular," said Brian Brooks, city manager of Forney, Texas, about 25 miles southeast of Dallas, where Zimmerman was stopped.
The gun in the glove box is legal in Texas, and police routinely ask motorists if they have weapons in the car, Brooks said. He said the entire stop lasted less than five minutes.
"It wasn't for super-excessive speeds, they just got him on regular speeding," Brooks said. "It's a pretty routine stop except for the fact that it was George Zimmerman."
Zimmerman was released when it was determined that he had no warrants.
Zimmerman, 29, who is white and Hispanic, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter on July 13 in Florida after a racially charged trial in the shooting of Martin in February 2012. Thousands of people demonstrated across the United States after the verdict.
Zimmerman, who was a volunteer neighborhood watchman in the central Florida town of Sanford, Florida at the time of the shooting, said he acted in self-defense.