Authorities said on Friday that a sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a Florida airman at his residence earlier this month has been fired.
Deputy Eddie Duran was “terminated” by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in a news release after internal affairs conducted an investigation.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson was shot by Duran, and the inquiry found that Duran’s “use of deadly force” in that incident “was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy,” according to the sheriff’s office.
“While Roger Fortson and his family have gained some progress with the firing of the officer who shot and killed him, justice has not yet been served.” “This deputy’s actions were not only careless; they were illegal,” family lawyer Ben Crump said in a statement on Friday night.
“Although the criminal investigation is still in progress, we fully expect this officer to face charges. The camera tape offers compelling evidence that this young man, who was just spending some alone time with his dog and video chatting with his girlfriend, was brutally and senselessly killed.”
Duran shot and killed 23-year-old Fortson on May 3 when he was at his Fort Walton Beach, Florida, apartment. Fortson’s apartment was approximately five miles away from Hurlburt Field, where he was stationed at the Special Operations Wing.
According to the sheriff’s office’s news release on Friday, Duran was first called to a “in-progress physical disturbance” at Fortson’s apartment complex, as per the findings of the detectives working for the sheriff’s office.
A complex employee-led Duran to unit 1401, which the employee said was “the location of the disturbance,” and the employee also mentioned that “there had been recent unreported disturbances at or around the same apartment,” according to the sheriff’s office report. Duran arrived at the complex.
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Contrary to that claim, a statement issued by the family earlier said that Fortson was on a FaceTime chat with his girlfriend before the shooting and that the deputy had been sent to the incorrect residence.
An announcement that a deputy was from the sheriff’s office was made by the deputy knocking on Fortson’s apartment door in body camera footage that was made public earlier this month. Fortson is told to back up by the deputy as soon as the door opens.
The deputy first knocks in the bodycam footage without saying hello. He knocks again about thirty seconds later, saying to open the door, that he is with the sheriff’s office. In about ten seconds, he announces himself with a knock. Fortson opens the door, and the deputy shoots him a few seconds later. Fortson is seen with what looks to be a revolver by his side.
At an earlier press conference, Crump claimed that Fortson was on FaceTime with his girlfriend when he heard a knock on the door and didn’t know who it was from. Fortson then went to get his lawfully held revolver.
Additionally, a video of the FaceTime chat that appears to begin after the shooting and shows Fortson’s apartment ceiling was previously made public by Crump’s company.
Groaning, Fortson says, “I can’t breathe,” in the video.
Duran spotted Fortson “holding a firearm in his right hand” when Fortson opened the door, according to sheriff’s investigators. Still, the gun “was pointed at the ground sufficiently enough for the former deputy to see the rear face of the rear sight clearly.”
The sheriff’s office claimed on Friday that Fortson “did not physically resist” Duran “in any way, and the investigation concluded that Mr. Forston did not point the gun in the former deputy’s direction.”
In a statement released on Friday, Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden stated, “This tragic incident should have never occurred.” The factual facts do not justify using lethal force in response to Mr. Fortson’s behavior. There was no crime committed by Mr. Fortson. He was a remarkable person and airman by all accounts.”
