Woman Killed by Police Officer During Florida citizen training

hm1996

hm1996

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So many "What if's" here.



Quote:New video shows 73yo woman's murder by cop during Florida citizen training


Published time: 21 Apr, 2017 19:43


New surveillance footage reveals the moments surrounding the fatal shooting of a retired librarian who, during a citizen’s police academy training, was killed by a Florida police officer dressed as a crime suspect.

The new video shows the confusion and subsequent shock in response to the shooting of Mary Knowlton, 73, after she had volunteered for a drill during an August 2016 "shoot-don't-shoot" exercise run by the Punta Gorda (Florida) Police Department.

In the footage, Officer Lee Coel, dressed as a masked criminal, is seen shooting at Knowlton four times with his personal weapon as she took her position during the exercise. Upon being shot, Knowlton fell to the ground. Moments later, Coel and other officers approached her, as the crowd had yet to understand that she was shot with real bullets from Coel's gun.

Knowlton's husband, Gary, thought her fall was part of an act.

"I was maybe 10 feet away from her and watched this patrolman who was the bad guy aim right at her and shoot," Gary Knowlton said, according to WINK. "She went down and we thought that was part of the show."

Officers soon came to the realization that she had been shot, and then attempted to treat her as paramedics were called to the scene. People in the crowd watching the exercise, meanwhile, then began to retreat from the area.

An officer "turned her over and she looked horrible, blood all over the place, and I thought, 'Oh my God,'" Gary Knowlton said. "There was maybe five people who were trying to help her, pushing her stomach and stuff like that."

Shot in the stomach and elbow, Knowlton died in an ambulance on the way to a nearby hospital, WINK reported. Police, meanwhile, prohibited Gary Knowlton from riding in the ambulance with her, then told him to go to the wrong hospital.

Coel has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of first-degree manslaughter. He was fired from the department in March. The former officer is appealing his termination.

Punta Gorda Police Chief Tom Lewis was charged with second-degree misdemeanor culpable negligence. He is on paid administrative leave.

An investigation of the shooting by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found that Coel did not intentionally "use lethal ammunition." Punta Gorda police Lieutenant Katie Heck said she "probably" gave Coel a box of live ammo instead of blanks, the report said.

"It is apparent that officer Coel’s and others inability to differentiate between blank firing cartridges and .38 caliber ammunition resulted in Mary Knowlton’s death," the FDLE said last month.

Participants in the training exercise were not offered safety precautions, the report said, and no safety checks were conducted. Coel had used his personal gun in previous training exercises, the report found. Some fellow officers alleged that he may have used live ammo rounds during those exercises as well, FDLE said.


https://www.rt.com/usa/385640-knowlton-florida-police-librarian-exercise/

Regards,
hm
 
That sucks. We used to use simunition for that type of training, had designated pistol slides, that were bright blue for immediate id and could not chamber actual ammo, followed by repeated checks for live ammo exactly for that reason. The only people who were allowed usable firearms were the instructors. The rest of us, if they found a single round anywhere besides locked in your squad got suspended even though the sim slides coildnt fire them. We didnt take chances.

Others may get disciplined for this. Hes claiming is their fault and not his, which is partially true. But he owns the bullet. Manslaughter sounds about right.
 
I've organized and participated in this type training. We used simunitions and specialty guns. Every officer involved was checked over twice by different safety officers to ensure there was no live ammo anywhere present. Never found any but I made it very clear that if I did the offender would be working every chit detail available for the next six months.
 
If officers want to shoot at each other that's fine. Good training.They learn to trust each other, or not.

I know it must have been an accident.
It would have been bad enough if officer only but an old lady.
That's beyond the pale.

Even when you play blank pistol pointing directly at somebody is not right.
This took several negligent people working together to pull off something this dumb.
 
That is truly tragic. I see several people involved here that, regardless of their public stance, will never fully recover. Not just the active participants but non-active observers too. Overwhelming evidence of gross negligence to hand to the jury for civil awards.
 
Good gawd the level of incompetence displayed from those licensed trained professionals. Another example of displayed ignorance because their egos won't allow them to even imagine they might not know what they are doing. Perhaps even promoted or put into positions of authority they don't deserve because of politics.

More higher ups need to be held accountable, but we know that won't happen.
 
Good old "RULE NUMBER ONE" of not pointing a firearm at anything that would be harmed still applies. A live round discharge into whatever would have still made the news, but no lives would have been changed forever. Shooter gets no slack in attempts to shift blame. Regards
 
So many issues wrong in this situation that it isn't even remotely funny.

How can you say, "I 'probably' gave him live ammo." If you're in charge of issuing dummy ammo for a training exercise, YOU are responsible for maintaining an unquestionable degree of safety, to prevent exactly this. YOU are responsible for every life in the exercise. There is NO room, zero, zip, nada for, "I 'probably' gave him live ammo." If YOU aren't sure, YOU go to jail with him.

And, I don't know maybe I'm wrong, but a trained law enforcement officer that doesn't know the difference between live rounds and dummy ammo?
 
Originally Posted By: KAZGood old "RULE NUMBER ONE" of not pointing a firearm at anything that would be harmed still applies. A live round discharge into whatever would have still made the news, but no lives would have been changed forever. Shooter gets no slack in attempts to shift blame. Regards

You cannot do force on force training that way. The issue here was in not using the specialty simunitions weapons and ammo and failure to ensure there were no actual functioning firearms and live ammo anywhere near the training scenario or players. Pure negligence on the trainers part and they will certainly pay for their mistakes. Terrible mistake that nobody is going to recover from - ever.
 
He was even using a revolver, jeez you don't even have to work a slide to see live rounds... when I was in the army we did a lot of force on force training with a lot of people participating, we used our weapons fitted with blank adapters. Mistakenly load a live round with one of those on and the issue would run its course in your face...
 
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