MIAMI (AP) – Deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida apartment complex called the wrong unit and shot and killed a black U.S. Air Force aviator who was home alone with a gun. attorney and said Wednesday.
Roger Fortson, a 23-year-old senior airman with the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when the shooting occurred on May 3.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement that Fortson was on a FaceTime call with the woman at the time of the encounter.
Crump said the woman, who declined to be named, said Fortson was alone in her apartment when she heard a knock on the door. He asked who was there, but got no response. A few minutes later, Fortson heard another loud knock, but when she looked through the peephole she didn’t see anyone, Crump said, citing the woman’s testimony.
The woman said Fortson was worried and went to retrieve the gun, which Crump legally owned.
As Fortson walked back through the living room, officers burst through the door, saw Fortson was armed, and fired six shots, Crump said. Crump said the woman was on the ground after Fortson was shot, saying she “couldn’t breathe.”
Fortson died at a hospital, officials said. The deputy involved in the shooting was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
According to Crump’s statement, the woman said Fortson did not cause a disturbance during the FaceTime call and said she believed the deputies must have been in the wrong apartment.
“The circumstances surrounding Roger’s death raise serious questions and demand immediate answers from authorities, especially in light of the alarming witness testimony that police entered the wrong apartment,” Crump said in a statement. Ta.
“We are calling for transparency in the investigation into Roger’s death and for the immediate release of body camera video to his family,” Crump said. “His family and the public have a right to know what happened in the moments leading up to this tragedy.”
Mr. Crump is a nationally known attorney based in Tallahassee, Florida. He has been involved in multiple high-profile law enforcement shootings involving Black people, including Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Tire Nichols, and George Floyd.
Crump and Fortson’s families are scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday morning in Fort Walton Beach.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement last week that deputies responded in self-defense after responding to a call of a disturbance in progress at an apartment complex and encountered an armed man. The office did not provide details such as what kind of disturbance the lawmakers were responding to or who reported it.
The sheriff’s office also declined to immediately identify the responding deputy or his race. The office did not respond to email and phone messages Wednesday. Officials announced earlier this week that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the local state attorney’s office would investigate the shooting.
FDLE spokesperson Gretl Plessinger told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it was highly unlikely that FDLE would comment further until the investigation is complete.
Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron as a special mission aviator, and one of his responsibilities as a member of the squadron’s AC-130J Ghost Rider crew was to carry the gunship’s 30 mm and 105 mm guns during missions. It was to load the gun.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to emails and voicemails from The Associated Press seeking comment Wednesday.
Fort Walton Beach is located between Panama City Beach and Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.
