George Zimmerman’s Lawyer Don West Took a Truly Shocking Selfie
After making a tasteless knock-knock joke in court, West celebrated by eating ice cream with his daughters. According to the Instagrammed photo that captured the event, #dadkilledit. By Brian Ries.
It wasn’t long after George Zimmerman defense attorney Don West finished delivering one of the most-panned knock-knock jokes in the history of televised courtroom trials that the father of two enjoyed an ice cream celebration with his daughters. This is not something most people would have known if a screenshot of an Instagram post by his daughter, Molly West, hadn’t started circulating around social media on Friday.
The photo shows West in a car alongside Molly and another daughter, Rachel, all three enjoying ice cream cones with the caption, “We beat stupidity celebration cones,” followed by three emoticons and the hashtags, “#zimmerman #defense #dadkilledit.”
With his treat in one hand and a smartphone in the other, the attorney appears to reach out towards the dashboard, lean in close to his daughter, and smile—taking what’s already being called “the most offensive selfie of all time” by one blog. The outrage was quick in coming.
“Great hashtag for a guy representing someone who stands accused of murder,” one person who saw the photo tweeted.
“Not really appreciating the #dadKILLEDit tag given the nature of the case…,” tweeted another.
As of Friday afternoon, the account—and the increasingly infamous photo—had been entirely removed from the web, leaving a trail of broken links in its wake. A call to Don West Law Group went unanswered on Friday, and a voicemail left there was not immediately returned. Shawn Vincent, a spokesman for West, did tell a reporter for Miami’s Channel 10 that going for ice cream with his daughters was a tradition for West, and “Don had no idea she’d post it on Instagram.” He said the defense team “understands the context of the comments with what’s happened in court this week are grossly insensitive.”
West himself told a group of reporters at the courtroom: “As a parent, we’re not always proud of things our children do, but we love them anyway, and then we move on.”