Former Punta Gorda Police Officer Lee Coel received no jail time after pleading no contest to second-degree manslaughter for shooting and killing 73-year-old retired librarian Mary Knowlton during a citizen police academy demonstration.
The shooting happened on August 9, 2016, at the Punta Gorda Police Department in Florida. Knowlton and her husband, Gary, were among community members attending a citizens academy event meant to give residents a closer look at police work.
According to Time, Knowlton was selected to participate in a role-playing exercise designed to demonstrate police judgment in “shoot, don’t shoot” scenarios. The exercise was supposed to involve blanks. Instead, Coel used a loaded weapon containing live ammunition.
Knowlton was playing the role of a police officer. Coel was playing the “bad guy.” During the demonstration, he fired at her in front of other participants. Time later reported that Coel shot Knowlton with two live bullets instead of blanks.
Knowlton was taken to a hospital but did not survive. Her husband had been nearby when she was shot. WGCU reported that one of the bullets pierced a major artery and that she died on the way to Lee Memorial’s trauma center.
The incident was stunning because it happened inside a police-sponsored community event, during a demonstration supposedly meant to teach civilians about law enforcement decision-making and restraint. Instead, the department allowed a real gun and live ammunition to enter a role-play scenario involving an unsuspecting civilian.
Investigators later found serious safety failures. Time reported that Coel had stored both live ammunition and blank cartridges in the back of his patrol car and reached for the wrong box. The state investigation found that his inability to distinguish between the ammunition types led to Knowlton’s death.
Coel was charged with manslaughter. Punta Gorda Police Chief Tom Lewis was also charged with culpable negligence. Lewis was acquitted by a jury in 2017. WWSB reported that Lewis was later fired after the City of Punta Gorda found that officers did not consistently follow standard safety protocols during citizen training programs.
Coel was also fired from the Punta Gorda Police Department. CBS News reported that the city’s disciplinary letter accused him of failing to take appropriate and reasonable steps to ensure Knowlton’s safety and failing to ensure that no live ammunition was used during the exercise.
The criminal case took more than three years to resolve. On October 16, 2019, Coel pleaded no contest to second-degree manslaughter. Police1, citing the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, reported that Lee County Circuit Judge Margaret Steinbeck withheld adjudication of guilt and sentenced Coel to 10 years of probation.
As part of the plea deal, Coel avoided prison, was ordered to pay restitution to Gary Knowlton, and agreed not to seek employment as a police officer. Police1 reported that he could have faced up to 15 years in prison if the case had gone to trial and he had been convicted.
Knowlton’s family strongly opposed the plea deal. Steven Knowlton told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that the family rejected the deal and felt devastated and outraged. He also questioned how his mother ended up on the other side of a police officer’s gun during what was supposed to be a public safety demonstration.
The City of Punta Gorda reached a settlement with Knowlton’s family. WWSB reported that the family received $2 million from the city.
The case remains one of the most bizarre and preventable on-duty killings on the list. Mary Knowlton was not a suspect. She was not in the street, in a car, or involved in a confrontation. She was a civilian volunteer attending a police class when Lee Coel fired live rounds during a staged demonstration and killed her.
