“I am devastated for everyone involved in this unimaginable event”, Chief Tom Lewis said.
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Police earlier said that the shooting at the drill, which was supposed to involve the use of blank ammunition, was accidental.
Mary Knowlton was one of two participants randomly selected from a group of 35 for a shoot-don’t shoot simulation during a two-hour training Tuesday at the Punta Gorda Police Department, Chief Tom Lewis told reporters at a press conference. “We believe that the caliber of the weapon used that there were only blank rounds available to that officer”. “If you pray, please pray for Mary’s family, and for the officers who were involved”. He now has officers assigned to him to monitor his psychological state.
– In the wake of the tragic shooting death of a woman during a citizens academy training in Punta Gorda, police procedures for conducting shooting scenarios is under the spotlight. Officers involved in most citizen academies typically don’t even take service weapons into classes, he added. She was participating in an exercise at the Punta Gorda Police Academy in which people were to decide whether a situation called for deadly force.
Why were officers using a real weapon in a role playing scenario? “However, clearly they use dummy guns, no live ammunition, obviously no firearms”, Loar said.
The chief described Mary Knowlton as “a phenomenal person in this community” who attended many local events.
Authorities are expected to hold a news conference about the shooting Thursday morning.
Currently, Officer Coel is being accused of excessive force in another case. By then, Coel said the defendant had failed to obey numerous warnings to stop.
Before Knowlton walked into the theatrically staged scenario, where she would experience firsthand the pressure officers feel when they’re deciding whether to use lethal force, she turned to a friend and said: “I’m going to give them hell”.
The department did not make Coel available for comment Wednesday. A woman who answered a phone listed in public records for Coel said she didn’t want to talk and hung up.
The academy consists of a series of sessions created to provide insight into city government and includes site visits to various agencies, according to Punta Gorda’s website.
Officer Coel has had an up-and-down stretch with 49-member Punta Gorda Police in his two years with the agency after leaving the Miramar Police Department in 2013.
Punta Gorda is a city of about 18,000 people located on Florida’s west coast, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Fort Myers.
Scott Weinberg is representing a man who said he was mauled by Coel’s K-9 during an arrest in November. There is dash cam video of the arrest.
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“I told everyone that this officer was unsafe and he needed to be fired”, said Weinberg, who didn’t identify his client.
