Family helped by Zimmerman after crash afraid to speak, O’Mara says

The family who was helped out of their wrecked SUV by George Zimmerman a week ago canceled a scheduled news conference Wednesday.

Mark Gerstle and his family were scheduled to speak at Zimmerman attorney Mark O'Mara's Orlando office about the July 17 crash in which the former neighborhood watch volunteer helped pull them from their overturned SUV.

O'Mara said the family is too afraid to speak publicly on the matter.

"It's frustrating to me that George does a very good deed for someone, and they are afraid to even acknowledge it for fear of reprisal or blowback. But that really is the concern they have," O'Mara said.

Gerstle's blue Ford Explorer rolled over near Interstate 4 and State Road 46 in Sanford on July 17, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office said.

Zimmerman came across the accident, and he and another man helped pull a couple and two children out of the SUV. He did not witness the crash. Zimmerman spoke with a deputy at the scene and left, a Sheriff's Office report said.

Just four days earlier, a jury of six women acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder charges in the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, prompting nationwide rallies and protests.