Woman fatally shot by Florida officer role-playing as ‘bad guy’ during citizen police academy

Washington Post ^ | August 10 2016 | Katie Mettler and Kristine Guerra

[Donglalinger]

Mary Knowlton arrived at the Punta Gorda, Fla., police station Tuesday night to learn how to be a community steward.

The 73-year-old was there as a student in the citizen police academy, a two-hour course intended to give an intimate look at what makes the department in the quaint Florida town work.

On this night, the group of 35 would tour the station and talk with officers, an essential part of academy curriculum that has gained popularity across the country amid a heated national debate about police violence.

[thefactor]

LEOs determine if there is Probable Cause to arrest. No LEO can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a law has been broken. And lawyers are the ones who actually indict the alleged offender in a court of law. I’ve lawfully arrested people and had the ADA come back to me and say he was declining prosecution and the perp was free to go. Was I wrong to arrest? Not at all. Law enforcement on the street is a lot different than it is in the court room is all I’m saying.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

LEOs determine if there is Probable Cause to arrest. No LEO can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a law has been broken. And lawyers are the ones who actually indict the alleged offender in a court of law. I’ve lawfully arrested people and had the ADA come back to me and say he was declining prosecution and the perp was free to go. Was I wrong to arrest? Not at all. Law enforcement on the street is a lot different than it is in the court room is all I’m saying.

LOL!

Please show in my posts to you where I've said anything different?

I asked how your department handle LEOs who kill an innocent volunteer during the course of a role-playing game?

You replied it's not in the manual. LOL!

If you thought I broke a law, would you first check your training manual? Would you call the lawyers before arresting me?

[thefactor]

Sheesh, FRiend, I thought you were asking tongue-in-cheek. Obviously I cannot give you an official answer as to what my department would do in a tragic case such as this. Most likely they would be suspended, fired, and brought up on charges.

And as I said previously, there's no need to call a lawyer before arresting someone because arrest and prosecution are different things and require different levels of evidence.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Sheesh, FRiend, I thought you were asking tongue-in-cheek.

Nah, man. I wouldn't joke about something like this.

This yahoo has a history. Before joining the Punta Gorda PD, he was asked to resign from Miramar PD. Then, in October 2015 he let his K9 maul a handcuffed bicyclist for almost 2 minutes for riding at night without a headlight. Finally, he loaded live rounds into a revolver instead of blanks and fatally shot an innocent woman.

My prediction is the DA will write this off as a tragic accident, Coel will be quietly asked to resign, then will join another PD where this will start all over again.