Trayvon Martin’s family attorney, Benjamin Crump, released a statement regarding Port Canaveral Police Department’s training targets resembling the slain teen.
“It is absolutely reprehensible that a high-ranking member of the Port Canaveral Police, sworn to protect and serve Floridians, would use the image of a dead child as target practice,” read the statement. “Such deliberate and depraved indifference to this grieving family is unacceptable. The citizens of Port Canaveral deserve better.”
Sgt. Ron King was fired from his post as the department’s firearms instructor, reports CNN. Today, he defended his decision to purchase targets with a faceless figure wearing a black hood carrying Arizona Iced Tea and Skittles—the same exact items Martin was carrying during his murder in Sanford, Florida in February 2012.
“While others have used it as a novelty, I view it as a tool for scenario-based firearms training,” said King. He believes the targets would help train officers when not to fire at suspects.
Canaveral Port Authority Interim Chief Executive John Walsh didn’t buy King’s excuse. “When informed of the basics, [I] found the entire situation unacceptable,” said Walsh. “It is not the type of behavior that I want a police officer to have on both a personal and professional level. I find this conduct intolerable and I demanded that the chief immediately start procedures to terminate this employee.”