Florida cop accidentally shoots woman dead in crime awareness workshop

A training exercise involving armed Florida police and citizens went shockingly wrong after an officer accidentally shot dead an elderly woman.

Surveillance video released last week showed how a 73-year-old former librarian posing as a crime victim in a demonstration last August in Punta Gorda was shot with live bullets instead of blank rounds.

Footage shows officer Lee Coel, playing the part of a hooded armed suspect, raising his pistol and firing several times at Mary Knowlton, who died from her injuries.

The exercise was being held at the Punta Gorda citizens academy that aims to raise awareness of crime prevention among local residents, reports The Florida Times Union.

Moments after Mrs Knowlton fell to the ground, confusion breaks out with some people believing she was continuing to role-play a shooting victim.

But it soon became apparent that she had actually been shot and killed and police, including Officer Coel, rush to help her.

An internal police investigation found no evidence Coel intended to shoot her. He was sacked from the force but appealed his termination at a hearing last week.

Officers in such demonstrations normally used "simunition guns," which are real-looking weapons that fire a non-lethal projectile with reduced force, reports the Union.