Taking the stand in his own defense Thursday, the man accused of opening fire on George Zimmerman last year offered a very different account than Zimmerman of the road rage incident in which he's charged.

Matthew Apperson said he was "scared to death" and feared for his life that May 2015 afternoon, when Apperson says Zimmerman drove up next to him at a stoplight on busy Lake Mary Boulevard and started yelling at him.

"I thought I was going to get shot dead right there,” Apperson told jurors at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford. He contends he shot at Zimmerman in self-defense after Zimmerman pointed a gun at him first.

Apperson recalled to jurors one of two previous run-ins he had with Zimmerman, one in which Zimmerman threatened him.

“He said, 'I am going to shoot you. I’m going to kill you just like I killed Trayvon,' ” Apperson testified.

Apperson said that bad blood spilled over into the Lake Mary Boulevard shooting. Apperson is accused of opening fire at at Zimmerman, a bullet piercing the window of Zimmerman's truck and narrowly missing his head.

“I said, 'What you are going to do, are you going to shoot me like you shot that little kid?” Apperson testified.

Apperson attorney Michael LeFay asked: “And when you said that, Mr. Apperson, what kind of effect did that have on Mr. Zimmerman?”

“Oh, he went into a rage,” Apperson replied.

Apperson said that at one point, he saw Zimmerman raise his gun to shoot, and that’s when fired a round into Zimmerman’s truck. The bullet missed Zimmerman’s head, but flying glass left cuts on his face.

“I said, 'Hey, I’ve got to protect myself,' so I grabbed the gun and I shot,” Apperson said.

But state prosecutors said Apperson couldn’t have seen Zimmerman holding a gun, because Zimmerman’s truck is too darkly tinted.

“I could see his arm outreached with a gun,” Apperson said.

Back on the stand Thursday, Zimmerman again faced questions about the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

LeFay asked him about the shooting of Trayvon, hoping to portray Zimmerman as someone who reacts to situations aggressively.

“As it turns out, he didn’t have any weapons is that correct?” LeFay asked.

“It depends on what you consider a weapon sir — he was beating my head repeatedly into the concrete sidewalk, and that has been categorized as a weapon.”

In earlier testimony, Zimmerman, who was acquitted for shooting and killing the unarmed black teenager, also called the Black Lives Matter movement a part of a terrorist group.

Attorneys will make their closing arguments Friday morning in the case. Apperson faces a minimum of 20 years in prison if he’s convicted of second degree attempted murder.


George Zimmerman testifies Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016 against Matthew Apperson, who is accused of shooting at him on Lake Mary Boulevard in 2015. (News 13)