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. However, Mary Knowlton, an elderly librarian, and another participant were selected to role-play in a scenario to simulate whether to use lethal force.
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A 73-year-old librarian has been killed after she was accidentally shot by a police officer during a simulation of a shoot/don’t shoot scenario. I am asking that if you pray, you pray for Mary’s husband and family and the officers and witnesses involved in this incident.
The officer involved in the incident has been place on administrative leave pending an investigation, per police. “We are shocked by this horrific accident and are grieving deeply over Mary’s passing”, Kunik said.
Her family devastated by the loss – says that’s the one question they want answered.
The exercise’s objective is to demonstrate when officers choose to pull the trigger and the scenarios are supposed to be played out with fake or unloaded weapons. On this night, the group of 35 would tour the station and talk with officers, an essential part of the academy curriculum that has gained popularity cross-country amid a heated national debate about police violence.
Officials declined to comment on why live ammunition was being used.
A woman was shot to death during a “shoot or don’t shoot” training exercise Tuesday at the Punta Gorda Police Academy, according to police.
Knowlton was playing the victim when an officer, who was playing a “bad guy”, fired several times at her, the Charlotte Sun reports.
Knowlton was the media generalist (also known as a librarian) at Parkview Elementary School from 1988 to 2004, then worked in a substitute capacity at other schools in the district until 2013, according to the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan public school district. The weapon used should have been fake or empty; instead, Knowlton was hit.
Daniels said many times people think a gun isn’t loaded, but they forget about the bullet in the barrel. She had two sons with her husband of 50 years.
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“She was the salt of the earth, a lovely soul and the kindest women you would know”, she said.
