To his critics he's a racist who killed an unarmed teenager in cold-blood. To supporters, he was a diligent neighborhood watch guard defending his property.
But more than six weeks after George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, 17, in a gated Florida community, very little is known about the man who has touched off a nationwide firestorm.
Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Zimmerman, 28, with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Martin on February 26 in a gated neighborhood of Sanford.
And after a few days in hiding over the weekend, Zimmerman was in custody, prosecutors confirmed.
The one-time Catholic altar boy, who has a white father and an Hispanic mother, triggered a storm of protest with critics saying his decision to challenge Martin was racially motivated.
An online petition launched by Martin's parents has gathered 2.5 million signatures from people demanding justice in the boy's killing, while thousands have marched in cities around the United States.
But Zimmerman's father Robert has said that "the media portrayal of George as a racist could not be further from the truth."
"He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever," the elder Zimmerman wrote in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper last month, adding that his family included relatives of all shades of color.
And Zimmerman's former lawyers, Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig who stepped down Tuesday, insisted they believed he was acting in self-defense.
Pointing to the "terribly corrosive process" of the case, Uhrig told reporters the isolated Zimmerman was "not doing well emotionally, probably suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome" and may have lost a lot of weight.
"He is largely alone. You might even say he is emotionally crippled by virtue of the pressure of this case," he added, saying the widespread protests sparked by the killing may have pushed him "a little bit over the edge."
They said Tuesday they were stepping down as his lawyers as he had stopped communicating with them, and was taking actions against their advice.
The neighborhood watch volunteer was initially not arrested thanks to a controversial Florida law that allows the use of deadly force when a person senses a reasonable fear of death or serious injury.
His supporters say Martin attacked first, breaking Zimmerman's nose before knocking him to the ground and repeatedly slamming his head against the sidewalk. They insist Zimmerman fired in self-defense.
Zimmerman has now launched a website to raise money for his "living expenses and legal defense," but he has not spoken publicly about the February incident.
Initial anger at the volunteer guard was fueled in part by a widely broadcast police mugshot of a stocky Zimmerman, superimposed with a photograph of a young and smiling Martin.
Then there were rumors that Martin had been suspended from his Miami high school for carrying a plastic bag that contained marijuana residue -- although his parents said it was a blatant attempt to smear their son's reputation.
At The Retreat at Twin Lakes, the gated community where Martin was shot dead, few people seemed to know anything about the Zimmermans. Neighbors interviewed by AFP were unable to physically identify George Zimmerman.
Zimmerman's mother has been identified as Gladys Zimmerman, a court interpreter in Virginia of Peruvian origin.
Former neighbors in northern Virginia, where Zimmerman grew up, described the family of three children as being devout Catholics, according to The Washington Post.
Court records show Zimmerman had at least three run-ins with law enforcement before Martin's killing: in 2002, 2005 and 2006 for domestic violence, violently resisting a police officer and speeding. He claimed that his girlfriends at the time attacked him.
