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Woman accidentally shot dead during Florida police academy exercise

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Movement

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Via the Guardian.

A civilian has been killed by accident during a training exercise at a police academy in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Mary Knowlton, a librarian, was participating in a “shoot-don’t shoot” exercise during a two-hour citizens academy hosted by the Punta Gorda police department.

The department’s chief, Tom Lewis, said the shooting happened on Tuesday night as two of the 35 participants were randomly selected to take part in a live roleplaying scenario “in which they make decisions on using simulated lethal force”.

Lewis said Knowlton was “mistakenly struck with a live round.”

“I am devastated for everyone involved in this unimaginable event,” Lewis told reporters during a late-night news conference at the police department. “If you pray, please pray for Mary’s family, and for the officers who were involved. Everyone involved in this accident is in a state of overwhelming shock and grief.”

Knowlton was taken to a hospital in nearby Fort Myers, where she was pronounced dead.

The citizen’s academy is a free, eight session course designed to provide insight into city government, according to the city’s website.

The Florida department of law enforcement is investigating, Lewis said. He declined to identify the officer involved in the shooting, but said he’s been placed on administrative leave.

A profile on a Facebook page that appeared to be Knowlton’s said she lives in Punta Gorda, but had been a librarian at Scott County public library in Savage, Minnesota.
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8.11 update

Update via The Guardian

The officer who shot and killed a 73-year-old retired librarian during a police “shoot/don’t shoot” demonstration in Florida was accused of using excessive force with his police dog and resigned from another police agency in 2013 for failing to satisfactorily complete an agency field training program.

Officer Lee Coel, 28, was put on administrative leave Tuesday as the Florida department of law enforcement investigates why real ammunition was used by mistake at an event designed to bring police and the public together in the small Gulf Coast city of Punta Gorda.

Authorities are expected to hold a news conference about the shooting on Thursday morning.
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During such an exercise, Heck said, the citizen “assumes the role of the officer, and is confronted with situations in which they must make a decision about whether to use force on the role-player. The situations escalate quickly, forcing fast decisions.

“Historically, it fosters a better understanding for what officers face during an intense situation, and leads to informative dialogue between the community and officers who act as role players.”

Both the citizen and the officer have a firearm during these scenarios.

But the guns are either supposed to be loaded with blanks or “simunition guns”, which are real-looking weapons that fire a non-lethal projectile with reduced force.

But Knowlton was mistakenly struck with a live round, officials said.

Mary Knowlton attended the class with her husband and it was supposed to be “a fun night”, her son said on Wednesday. Even the police chief was in attendance at the class and was visibly upset during a news conference on Wednesday.
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Coel left the Miramar police department after 14 months of service in the Broward County agency. Tania Rues, a Miramar police spokeswoman, said Coel resigned but could not comment on the reasons why. Coel wrote a resignation letter saying he was resigning for “personal reasons”; the News-Press reported that he failed to complete an agency field training program.

A Punta Gorda lawyer said on Wednesday that Coel shouldn’t have been on the Punta Gorda force. Scott Weinberg is representing a man who said he was mauled by Coel’s K-9 during an arrest in November, and took the man’s case in June. That’s when he viewed Coel’s dashcam video of the arrest and informed local media about the case.

“I told everyone that this officer was dangerous and he needed to be fired,” said Weinberg, who didn’t identify his client. “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.”

Punta Gorda officials aren’t saying how a gun with a live round came to be used at Tuesday evening’s demonstration, noting blank rounds are typically used in such classes.

“We were unaware that any live ammunition was available to the officer,” Punta Gorda police chief Tom Lewis said at a news conference on Wednesday. “The officer involved is grief stricken. We’ve got officers assigned to him to make sure he’s psychologically stable.”

The victim’s son, Steve Knowlton, said in an interview at his parents’ home that, on his mother’s behalf, he was forgiving the officer who fired
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L

LiK

Member
"randomly selected" gives me chills cuz i can only imagine what the other voluneteers are thinking now if they were chosen for this. i dunno how this shit happens.
 
S

ShyMel

Member
RIP to the victim. You think you are going to a training session, but you end up being shot with an actual bullet.
 
A

Aurongel

Member
i understand the psychological reasons of why you'd use live rounds in training exercises but ones involving other individuals? The fuck is that shit?
 
S

Sojgat

Member
Why the fuck were they using live rounds in a training exercise where civilians were involved?

Also, of course it's Florida.
 
A

adj_noun

Member
Akuun said:
Tragic. Why the fuck is a simulation using live rounds?
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Wasn't supposed to be live.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...tizen-police-academy-lethal-force-simulation/

The hosting officers chose two students to role-play in a lethal force simulation, a scenario intended to demonstrate how and when officers decide to pull the trigger. Knowlton played the victim, Charlotte Sun photographer Sue Paquin told the newspaper, and a Punta Gorda police officer played a “bad guy.” These scenarios are usually safe, acted out with either fake or empty weapons.

But when the officer’s gun was fired, Knowlton — a mother, wife and career librarian — was hit with live ammunition.

She was rushed to a local hospital and pronounced dead.
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C

commedieu

Banned
They should just mime guns with their fingers. They all practice on the range. Or at least say bang. If you're working with people. No need to aim guns at them.
 
D

DrunkShogun

Member
This is something that shouldn't even be possible to occur. Someone needs to be punished for the negligence that caused a death that should never have occurred.
 
F

fallengorn

Bitches love smiley faces
That is some negligent, irresponsible shit. Even using "empty" weapons is dangerous because of the possibility that this happens.
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Akuun said:
Why the fuck is a simulation using live rounds?
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That's what I want to know. Surely they could've used paint-balls (ugh) or those wooden guns that I think they use for trigger discipline?

adj_noun said:
Wasn't supposed to be live.
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Her family about to get paid.
 
C

commedieu

Banned
Two Words said:
Is there really a city in Florida called Punta Gorda? As in "Fat Bitch"?

How do they not make sure the rounds aren't live? Somebody needs to go to prison for this. It can't be written off as an accident.
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Charles Lee ray might have been in the armory.
 
L

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
Two Words said:
Is there really a city in Florida called Punta Gorda? As in "Fat Bitch"?

How do they not make sure the rounds aren't live? Somebody needs to go to prison for this. It can't be written off as an accident.
Click to expand...


You're thinking of "puta" I believe.
 
G

geardo

Member
Maybe it's the prior military in me, but I just don't understand how such blatantly negligent firearms deaths like this occur (well, I do, people are idiots after all). Damn tragedy.
 
tkscz

tkscz

Member
Two Words said:
Is there really a city in Florida called Punta Gorda? As in "Fat Bitch"?

How do they not make sure the rounds aren't live? Somebody needs to go to prison for this. It can't be written off as an accident.
Click to expand...

Think I'll pay a visit to this city

So are they always live rounds or are the usually blanks and no one was aware? If they are always live then I wouldn't call this an accident, more of an eventuality.
 
F

Fandangox

Member
Two Words said:
Is there really a city in Florida called Punta Gorda? As in "Fat Bitch"?

How do they not make sure the rounds aren't live? Somebody needs to go to prison for this. It can't be written off as an accident.
Click to expand...

Punta is "point". More accurately the pointed end of an object.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
When we do training, it's with 'blue guns' that are blue pieces of plastic that are shaped and weighted like guns, or we use special guns that are modified to only shoot paint rounds (called simunitions). No normal guns should ever be used in training exercises, even unloaded ones. Either this thing was very badly run, or the officer fucked up, or both.
 
S

supermarioworldE

Banned
Yet another tragedy caused by stupidity involving firearms. Why actual guns? Why didnt they check them beforehand? R.I.P to another innocent victim.
 
M

Memory

Member
So did someone accidentally have live rounds or were they using live rounds as part of the simulation?


Tragic either way, rip.
 
A

adj_noun

Member
tkscz said:
So are they always live rounds or are the usually blanks and no one was aware? If they are always live then I wouldn't call this an accident, more of an eventuality.
Click to expand...

These scenarios are usually safe, acted out with either fake or empty weapons.
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I'm not sure if blanks are involved in the "fake weapons" or not.

Though whether or not they are, I kinda wish they'd just went with a painted block of wood.

Neuromancer said:
When we do training, it's with 'blue guns' that are blue pieces of plastic that are shaped and weighted like guns
Click to expand...

Or that.
 
K

Kinyou

Member
How could anyone fuck up that much. And why even have that simulation with real guns. It doesn't sound like this was even meant to be actual firearms training
 
spookyfish

spookyfish

Member
johnny956 said:
They shouldn't even be using real guns....there is no reason
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Exactly. When the police at the university I work at hold training exercises, they use the realistic-looking paint rounds. Those things hurt, but they're not deadly.

In this situation, these guns should be fake. There really is no excuse, and although it is an accident, some type of action needs to be taken.
 
C

CrunchyFrog

Member
Sojgat said:
Why the fuck were they using live rounds in a training exercise where civilians were involved?

Also, of course it's Florida.
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Idiots, someone absolutely needs to be fired. If this wasn't a cop they would have immediately incurred manslaughter charges. Fucked up beyond all recognition, a woman dead for no goddamn reason.
 
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