Matthew Apperson was convicted by a jury last month of second-degree attempted murder for firing at Zimmerman.

While witnesses claim in the police report that Zimmerman bragged that he shot Martin, Zimmerman said in the report that he was not bragging, but trying to explain he shot Martin self-defense.

The handgun used to kill unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 has been sold for $250,000 (£172,000), US media say.

Zimmerman told the Orlando Sentinel that GunBroker.com was not "prepared for the traffic and publicity surrounding the auction of my firearm. It has now been placed with another auction house."

A listing for the weapon was removed f-rom the GunBroker.com site Thursday morning, minutes after the auction was to begin, as negative traffic about the sale exploded online.

Bidding for the gun was supposed to open at $5,000 at 11 a.m. Thursday but a link to the auction said: “Sorry, but the item you requested is no longer in the system.”

The gun that George Zimmerman used to kill black teen Trayvon Martin seems to have been pulled f-rom the auction site whe-re he listed it today, shortly after the shooter