A 73-year-old woman has been accidentally shot and killed by a police officer during a “shoot, don’t shoot” training exercise in Florida.
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Local police department chief Thomas Lewis said there were a total of 35 civilians present during the exercise and two of them were randomly chosen for participation.
She was shot multiple times during a role play exercise in which the officer pretended to be the “bad guy”, with Knowlton playing the victim, a photographer covering the event told the Charlotte Sun.
“By allowing citizens a firsthand look at what rules, regulations and policies the police follow, some of the misunderstanding may be alleviated”, “The objective of the Citizen Police Academy is not to train an individual to be a ‘Reserve Police Officer, ‘ but to produce informed citizens”.
The officer involved has not been identified and is on administrative leave pending a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, Lewis says. The mother and former librarian had recently moved to Punta Gorda from Minnesota and served on the local the Friends of the Punta Gorda Library board of directors.
The Punta Gorda Police Department said Coel is a frequent presenter at “shoot/don’t shoot” role-playing scenarios, as well as at youth and neighborhood events. “Everyone involved is in an overwhelming state of shock and grief”. She was later pronounced dead, according to the Punta Gorda Police Department.
Authorities didn’t immediately say how a gun with a live round came to be used at the demonstration Tuesday evening, noting blank rounds are normally used for such a citizens academy class.
The Punta Gorda Police Department realizes the community has many questions about this incident.
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The most recent data available from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that 33,636 people died from firearm-related incidents in 2013, CNN reports.
