A Florida sheriff’s office has released body camera footage showing a deputy fatally shooting a 23-year-old American airman.
Body camera footage released by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office shows deputies responding to the apartment of Senior Airman Roger Fortson on May 3 after receiving a report of a disturbance. Ta.
Video showed a deputy arriving at a Fort Walton Beach apartment and speaking to a woman who said she heard someone arguing outside. The deputy then took an elevator and walked down a hallway outside.
The video showed a deputy knocking on Fortson’s apartment and telling him he was at the sheriff’s office.
“Sheriff’s Office, please open the door,” an officer can be heard saying. “Stepping on it.”
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U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, passed away on Friday, May 3. (Hurlburt Field)
The deputy fired at Fortson shortly after he opened the door to the apartment with his gun pointed down.
“Drop the gun, drop the gun,” the officer said.
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“I don’t have it,” Fortson said.
After the shooting, a deputy tells Fortson not to move, and a call for emergency medical services can be heard over the radio before the video ends.
Roger Fortson was shot to death in his Florida apartment on May 3rd. (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden told reporters at a news conference that it was “painful” to show the video.
“It pains me to show you the video, but I know you all need to see it,” he said.
Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Fortson’s family, accused Fortson of going to the wrong apartment and argued the shooting was unjustified.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday afternoon that a “deputy responded to a call of a disturbance in progress and encountered an armed man,” who shot and killed the deputy. (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Crump said the 23-year-old was taken to Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in a dignified transfer by the Air Force at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
His family is making funeral arrangements for Friday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia.
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Fortson was stationed at Hurlburt Field and assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron.
He was assigned as a gunner on an AC-130J and earned the Air Medal for Combat Equipment, Hurlburt Field announced. Facebook post
