Police Chief Tom Lewis knew her personally.
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An officer accidentally shot and killed 73-year-old Mary Knowlton during a role-play scenario.
According to the Miami Herald, Mary Knowlton was killed in a “shoot/don’t shoot” scenario when she was struck by a live round. A woman who answered a phone listed in public records for Coel said she didn’t want to talk and hung up. Three years ago, when he was a rookie with the Miramar Police Department, he was accused of using excessive force on two separate occasions and was put on administrative leave.
“As your Chief of Police I accept full responsibility for the actions of my department, my officers and the bottom line is I am 100 percent accountable”.
Even in retirement, Knowlton was active in the community, serving on the board of directors for the Friends of the Punta Gorda Library.
Meanwhile, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) records revealed that Coel was asked to resign from his previous job with the Miramar, Florida, police in April 2013 for “failure to satisfactorily complete agency field training program”. Police say an officer accidentally shot a woman to death during a citizen’s academy “shoot/don’t shoot” exercise Tuesday evening.
There was no immediate response from Coel or Lewis to Weinberg’s assertions.
With suspicions running high between police and many citizens in recent years, particularly in minority communities, Vasquez said, a death like the one in Punta Gorda is extremely unfortunate. Scott Weinberg, who is representing a man who said he was mauled by Coel’s K-9 during an arrest in November. Weinberg took the man’s case in June, and that’s when he viewed Coel’s dashcam video of the arrest and informed local media about the case.
Later Wednesday afternoon, Heck identified the officer as Lee Coel and said he has worked for the department since 2014. “If he had been fired like he should have been when he ordered that dog to maul my client for a minute and 47 seconds, then this wouldn’t have happened”.
Police Chief Thomas Lewis said in a statement Thursday the role play exercise is meant to foster conversation about how quickly officers have to make decisions during a use of force incident. “Everyone involved in this accident is in a state of overwhelming shock and grief”. “We’ve got officers assigned to him to make sure he’s psychologically stable”.
“There’s too much hate in this world, in America, we always feel like we need revenge and it doesn’t solve anything”, he said.
The 73-year-old had retired to Florida with her husband after a career as a teacher and school librarian in Minnesota. “I was standing 10 feet away from her when the guy shot her”. The couple split their time between Minnesota and the small Gulf Coast community.
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Because despite the heartache, Gary Knowlton says he is learning to forgive, “if I hold a grudge against them, it’s only gonna hurt me cause in the long run I’ll just sit there and suffer with my torment”. She had two sons.
