A 73-year old woman was killed during a police community seminar on Tuesday in Punta Gorda, Florida, during a routine training exercise.



Mary Knowlton was taking part in a police-hosted informational meeting by the Punta Gorda police academy, when she was fatally shot during an exercise that was supposed to simulate a hypothetical crisis situation.

The “shoot/don’t shoot” scenario – a demonstration that was part of a two-hourCitizens Police Academy event – is intended give guidance about how police determine when to use lethal force in a potentially deadly, real-world confrontation.



Knowlton was one of two people selected out of a group of approximately 35 for the exercise. During the demonstration, she was inexplicably hit with a live round.



During a press conference on Tuesday night, police chief Tom Lewis detailed the events surrounding Knowlton’s death, which he called a “horrible accident”.

“Our entire police department and all of our city leaders are absolutely devastated for everyone involved in this unimaginable event,” Lewis said. “I am asking that if you pray, you pray for Mary’s husband and family and for all of the officers and witnesses involved in this incident.”

The officer whose weapon discharged, killing Knowlton, has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of an independent investigation by the Florida department of law enforcement, Lewis said.

“The Punta Gorda police department realizes that our community will have many questions about this incident,” he said. “However, we are taking care not to jeopardize the investigation.” He did not answer reporters’ questions during Tuesday’s press conference.

It is not clear why a loaded weapon was used in the exercise, given that such demonstrations are often conducted with fake or unloaded weapons. Pictures from the Punta Gorda police department’s Facebook page show a previous training simulation in March with civilians that mirror the kind of class in which Knowlton was killed. Pictures show a similar scenario featuring a seemingly fake weapon.

According to the News-Press, a public information officer for the police department said they had run demonstrations similar to Tuesday’s for about two years without injuries or incident.

Originally from Austin, Minnesota, Knowlton was a librarian who was living in Punta Gorda, according to her Facebook page. She was pronounced dead at the Lee memorial hospital in Fort Myers. The west Florida town of 17,500 people is located on Florida’s Gold Coast, about 20 miles from Fort Myers.

The kind of citizen-police academies at which Knowlton was shot are very prevalent across the US, having a presence in hundreds of cities nationwide, both in small towns like Punta Gorda as well as major population centers such as New York and Los Angeles.

According to the National Citizens Police Academy Association, a national membership body that partners with citizens and law enforcement groups across the country, the idea of a citizens police academy originated in England in 1977, and was first imported to the US in Orlando in 1985.



“These programs are intended to open the lines of communication between the community and the Police Department,” the website says. “By allowing citizens a firsthand look at what rules, regulations and policies the police follow, some of the misunderstanding may be alleviated.

It adds: “The objective of the Citizen Police Academy is not to train an individual to be a ‘Reserve Police Officer’ but to produce informed citizens.”

The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the Obama administration initiative aimed at reducing crime while increasing public trust in law enforcement, gave credence to the worthiness of a citizen policy academy.



“Law enforcement agencies should engage youth and communities in joint training with law enforcement, citizen academies, ride-alongs, problem solving teams, community action teams, and quality of life teams,” it said in its 2015 report.

