Lee Cole

Last week, tragic news came out that a 73-year-old former librarian was shot and killed during a citizen’s civics class. Mary Knowlton was participating in some kind of act out where a police officer was playing “the bad guy,” when the shots he fired—at her—turned out to be real bullets. Shortly after, news broke that the identity of the police officer responsible for shooting was Lee Cole. This is the same man that can be seen allowing his K9 to repeatedly attack a man in this video below, posted this past June. The Miami Herald has discovered that police officer Lee Cole is a real piece of work.

The Punta Gorda policeman who tragically shot and killed a retired librarian when he fired real bullets — instead of blanks — at her during a citizens academy is a former Miramar officer with a troubled record, forced to resign from his job at the end of his rookie year. Three years before the shooting that led to the death of 73-year-old Mary Knowlton on Tuesday, Lee Coel was accused twice of using excessive force and relieved of his duties before investigators found he violated department policies and was allowed to resign. This year, he was sued in Punta Gorda after he ordered his K-9 to attack a bicyclist who was stopped for riding without a light at night, inflicting severe injuries that required surgery.

Mary Knowlton, and they only begin with the fact that Lee Cole should not be allowed to own a gun, let alone be a police officer of anything. While Punta Gorda officials have only been able to say they don’t know why Cole had live ammunition in his gun during an exercise in which they “typically use blanks,” no one has explained why Lee would even fire blanks at a person. If you are ever on a movie set you know that you never actually fire blanks directly at anything because there is always a chance that some kind of mistake might happen, and blanks do have real gun powder in them. While blanks are mostly safe (from a distance), what the fuck are you doing, Punta Gorda? Mary Knowlton attended this Citizen’s Academy in a show of support for law enforcement. There are numerous problems with what happened to

The video below is graphic and the ending has Cole explaining to an officer his perception of the events. It’s disturbing to think this man was allowed to stay on the force, even to carry coffee, let alone wield a gun.