PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (WFLA) – At a brief press conference on Thursday morning, Police Chief Tom Lewis takes the blame for the accidental shooting death of 73-year-old Mary Knowlton.
“As your chief of police, I accept full responsibility for the actions of my department, my officers and the bottom line, I am 100% accountable,” said Chief Lewis.
Knowlton was shot and killed by Officer Lee Coel during a shoot/don’t shoot training exercise during a Citizen’s Academy on Tuesday evening.
Officer Coel has been with the force for two years and he’s no stranger to controversy.
On August 20, 2015, Officer Coel pulled over Richard Schumacher for riding his bicycle without a headlight. After Coel followed him for a few blocks, Schumacher pulled over and complied but Coel sent his K9 dog after him.
The dog bit Schumacher on the arm and held the grip for nearly two minutes while Schumacher screamed and bled.
Although Schumacher was following Coel’s orders, the officer did not order the dog to stop.
Schumacher’s attorney Scott Weinberg has been lobbying the chief for months to have Coel fired.
“I was telling everybody a couple of months ago that he was going to kill somebody and he was very dangerous and here we are today,” said Weinberg.
Weinberg was not surprised when he learned Officer Coel was the one who fired the shot. He does not think he killed her on purpose but he doesn’t have a good opinion of the officer.
“Officer Coel is reckless, he’s been reckless, he acts like he’s overseas even though he’s never been overseas. He tends to be overly aggressive with people even for minor infractions and he doesn’t make good decision,” said Weinberg.
He feels the Chief deserves much of the blame.
“When you allow an officer like Officer Coel to stay on the force after you have overwhelming evidence that he needs to be let go, he has to be held responsible too. I think the Chief needs to resign, I think Officer Coel needs to be fired and depending on how the facts turn out, he might be charged with involuntary manslaughter,” said Weinberg.
“In America, across the country, there are a lot of great cops. But when there are bad cops, the good cops seem to want to hold on to those bad cops for so long. If this guy would’ve just been fired, or never even hired in the first place, we’re not here, my client’s arm isn’t chewed up, and this poor lady is not dead. It makes you very frustrated at the system because everyone in the system knew that Officer Coel was bad.”
The case involving the K9 is now in civil litigation.
Officer Coel is currently on administrative leave. FDLE is investigating Tuesday’s shooting and report should be made available in two to four weeks.
Punta Gorda officer who killed woman resigned from another agency
The officer who shot and killed a 73-year-old retired librarian during a police “shoot/don’t shoot” demonstration in Punta Gorda 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 Thursday morning.
Lieutenant Katie Heck, the spokeswoman for the Punta Gorda Police, said Coel has worked for the department since 2014. She said Coel frequently gave department presentations and tours, “specifically role-playing in these shoot/don’t shoot scenarios.”
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.
On Tuesday night, Heck said Mary Knowlton, a well-known community volunteer, assumed the role of the officer during the “shoot/don’t shoot” exercise.
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 “simulation 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 Wednesday. Even the police chief was in attendance at the class and was visibly upset during a news conference Wednesday.
What officials didn’t discuss: Coel’s record.
Coel left the Miramar Police Department after 14 months of service in the Broward County agency. Tania Rues, 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 Wednesday that Coel shouldn’t have been on the Punta Gorda force. Scott Weinberg, who is representing a man who said he was mauled by Coel’s K-9 during an arrest in November. Scott 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.
“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 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.
Mary Knowlton moved to Florida after living for years in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Books and magazines lay scattered on tables of the home she shared in Florida with Gary, her husband of 55 years. The couple split their time between Minnesota and the small Gulf Coast community. She had two sons.
“There’s too much hate in this world, in America, we always feel like we need revenge and it doesn’t solve anything,” Steve Knowlton said. “I obviously can’t say it’s easy to forgive, but it needs to be done. She’s watching me now.”Tonight at 5:30 on News Channel 8, learn more about Officer Lee Coel’s background.
