Mary Knowlton, 73, was participating in a role-playing exercise when an officer mistakenly shot her with a live round, the Punta Gorda Police Department said.
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Mary Knowlton arrived at the Punta Gorda, Fla., police station Tuesday night to learn how to be a community steward. She was pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital.
‘Everyone involved is in an overwhelming state of shock and grief, ‘ he said during a press conference on Tuesday night. The chief asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an independent investigation. He declined to identify the officer involved in the shooting, but said the officer has been placed on administrative leave.
Police haven’t given details on how the incident unfolded or why there was live ammunition in the officer’s gun.
“She instantly went down like a hurricane had hit her”, says Knowlton. As noted by the City’s website, the academy “is a free, eight session course of interactive classes created to provide insight into City government and to develop future leaders through well informed and civically engaged residents”.
Two participants were randomly selected. It was part of a popular citizens academy attended by 35 people, including her 75-year-old husband, and the police chief. She studied Library Science at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Knowlton was a board member with Friends of the Punta Gorda Library, according to the organization’s webpage.
Lewis fielded no questions from reporters and offered no other specifics on how the shooting occurred, saying that investigators “must take great care to not jeopardize the investigation”.
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For Knowlton’s family, they still can’t come to terms with the fact that she’s gone.
“So much is on the internet now”.
The couple had two sons, Hartwigsen said.
Books and magazines lay scattered on tables of the home she shared in Florida with Gary, her husband of 55 years.
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“She knew he didn’t mean to do it”, he says.
