Police Sergeant Fired Over Trayvon Martin Shooting Targets
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Allison Joyce/Getty Images(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — A Florida police sergeant was fired for allegedly bringing Trayvon Martin shooting targets he purchased on the Internet to a firearms training session.
Sgt. Ron King, who had been with the Cape Canaveral Port Authority since January 2011, was fired Thursday, authorities said.
On April 4, when two fellow cops discovered King intended to use the Trayvon Martin shooting targets in their weapons exercise, they told him “they didn’t think it was appropriate,” said John Walsh, CEO of the Cape Canaveral Port Authority. The next day, he said the officers informed the Port Authority Police Chief, who called in internal affairs.
Authorities declined to say whether any of the targets were used.
“We want to apologize to the community and the family of Trayvon Martin and don’t feel that this is tolerable or acceptable in any level. It’s something that we’d never want the Port Authority to be involved in and we truly apologize to the families for the pain that they even had to hear about something like this and had to relive their son’s death again,” Walsh said.
The incident comes two months before the scheduled start of the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who told police he followed Martin because the teen was acting suspiciously. Zimmerman later told police he shot Martin in self-defense after the 17-year-old punched him in the face, knocked him down and began slamming his head into the pavement. Martin was unarmed.
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