Move follows the fatal shooting of a retired librarian during a citizen's training exercise in 2016.

PUNTA GORDA — Embattled Punta Gorda Police Chief Tom Lewis has been fired for his role in the 2016 death of retiree Mary Knowlton, who was shot and killed by former police officer Lee Coel during a training exercise.

City Manager Howard Kunik said in the months after the 73-year-old's tragic death he has received more than a hundred letters, emails and visits in support of Lewis.

Still, the outpouring of support was not enough to retain the police chief because Knowlton's killing cast a "dark cloud over the city."

"I cannot retain a leader based on character alone," said Kunik reading a statement during a press conference at City Hall. "We will begin a national search for a police chief immediately."

Punta Gorda Police Capt. Jason Ciaschini will continue serving as interim chief until a candidate has been selected and installed. Kunik emphasized that the city would not promote from within.

"The new chief needs to come from the outside," he said.

A Punta Gorda city spokesperson said that, despite other media outlets reporting that Lewis had been fired days ago, he was not officially discharged until 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Kunik said during several meetings with Lewis, which started Friday, the former police chief refused to resign but instead offered to accept a demotion to road lieutenant.

After Lewis steadfastly refused to step down, Kunik realized there was no other option but to involuntarily separate Lewis from the department.

"We agreed to take the weekend to consider the options and reconvene Monday," Kunik said. "I told Tom I could not support his return to the department as a road lieutenant because I strongly believe with new leadership, having a previous chief in a road position would only create confusion, conflict and division."

The memorandum

The city manager said he had held out hope that Lewis and the city could separate amicably, but during the meeting Monday, Lewis said, again, he did not intend to resign.

Kunik sent Lewis a memorandum Wednesday morning, notifying Lewis of his termination. Kunik also told City Council members of the pending disciplinary action as required by the Punta Gorda Charter.

The memorandum states that the former police chief violated two of the City's Personnel Rules and Regulations — safety and conduct unbecoming — but Lewis did not violate any police department Standard Operating Procedures. The letter stated his termination was effective as of Wednesday.

The city manager explained that the two violations were cited in an internal affairs investigation, which began after the police chief was acquitted of misdemeanor negligence charges.

The internal investigators determined that Lewis had a "casual approach" to safety during citizen's force-on-force training, which were unlike the safety protocols followed during the officers' force-on-force training, which involves firearms modified to only chamber and shoot nonlethal training ammunition.

Examples of standard safety protocols violated include: failure to use written lessons plans and scripts for the "shoot, don't shoot" scenarios; failure to issue and require proper protective for the citizen role-players and observers; failure to check and double-checked participants for unauthorized live weapons, ammunition, or other equipment; allowing live weapons to be used on at least two occasions, and failure to hold safety debriefings before the exercises.

The investigators also found that there were incorrect assumptions about who held overall responsibility for safety during the citizens academy — there was no safety officer — an issue that was brought up during the trial. The assumption that all officers were responsible for safety that day left open the possibility that an officer could assume someone else was ensuring safety.

'Unnecessary risks'

Because most of the police department's senior staff, including Lewis, attended the ill-fated training demonstration, the report, which took 51 days to complete, was given to Kunik to determined whether violations could be sustained.

"The Punta Gorda Police Department has an exceptional record of safety protocols when conducting officer training, Kunik said, "but citizen demonstrations showed an inexplicable departure from those protocols."

"Whenever the potential for injury is present, police departments have an obligation to aggressively pursue safety," Kunik said. "I didn’t find this is the case in our department when citizen demonstrations were concerned. I found there was a non-standardized approach that created unnecessary risks for everyone involved."

The internal affairs investigation began after Lewis was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge of culpable negligence in connection with Knowlton's death.

Coel was charged with manslaughter for killing Knowlton. He is facing 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for a felony charge. His trial date has not yet been set. Coel was fired by the department after being criminally charged.

Knowlton, who had never held a gun in her life, was randomly selected to participate in a "shoot, don't shoot" scenario, where she was given an inert training gun and Coel, who was playing the "bad guy," used a real firearm he brought from home. Coel's gun was supposed to be loaded with blanks. Instead, Coel loaded wadcutters — live rounds — into the revolver.

Coel fired four rounds at Knowlton, who was killed when two bullets bounced off a nearby car and struck her. One round struck her arm and another perforated her aorta. She fell dead in front of her husband, who was also attending the event.