Move follows the fatal shooting of a retired librarian during a citizen’s training exercise in 2016.
PUNTA GORDA — The Punta Gorda police chief has been fired.
A Punta Gorda city spokesperson said that despite other media outlets reporting that Chief Tom Lewis had been fired Tuesday, he was not discharged until 10 a.m. this morning. The move follows the fatal shooting of a retired librarian during a training exercise in 2016.
City Manager Howard Kunik is holding a news conference at 1 p.m. Wednesday to discuss an internal affairs investigation, as well as other steps taken over the past several days to avoid “involuntary termination.”
“Tom (Lewis) and Howard (Kunik) have had at least three conversations including two meetings to resolve this,” spokeswoman Sandi Poreda said. “They discussed several options besides this.
“What I can tell you unequivocally is that Tom (Lewis) was not fired until 10 a.m. this morning. I know he shared other thoughts on that, but I don’t know exactly what happened there.”
The last meeting Lewis had with Kunik was on Monday, and he was not fired at that time.
Kunik sent an interoffice memorandum to the former police chief today, Wednesday, and based on information in the Police Department Final Report for Professional Standards, stated that Lewis violated two of the City’s Personnel Rules and Regulations, but was not in violation of the Punta Gorda Police Department Standard Operating Procedure.
NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida
Source: http://www.heraldtribune.com