Film director Spike Lee has apologized to a Florida couple and agreed to pay their expenses for fleeing their home after they were harassed when he retweeted an address that was described as the home of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who shot Trayvon Martin.
“Spike Lee did the right thing,” the couple’s lawyer, Matt Morgan, tweeted. “The McClain’s claim is fully resolved. Thank you Spike!!!”
David and Elaine McClain, a couple in their 70s whose home is about four miles from where Martin was killed, told CNN that besides apologizing as they requested, Lee agreed to pay the cost of them having to leave their home temporarily.
No dollar amount was revealed. Elaine McClain described the apology as sincere.
The mistake by Lee, who has 250,000 Twitter followers, forced the McClains to flee to a hotel when reporters and hate mail began showing up at their home.
Elaine McClain has a son named William George Zimmerman who previously lived at the address.
Technolog: How did Spike Lee get it wrong?
“He definitely owes a big apology,” McClain told the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday. “All this is really scary and it’s a shame. There’s no reason they put our address out there without checking to see who lived there.”
Late Wednesday, Lee made the apology via Twitter, saying he deeply apologized and urged people to “leave the McClain’s [sic] in Peace.”
Some Twitter members have been sending Lee angry and often racist tweets in response to his sharing of the address, many of which he has retweeted.
