Police in Florida released body camera footage of the moment a deputy shot and killed an Air Force member who answered the door of an apartment building last week.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who is black, is seen on video answering the door with a handgun next to him, and the deputy fires multiple shots at close range. Fortson later died at a hospital.
The body camera footage was released after civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, urged those involved to make it public. Family members and local police are at odds over the truth behind a shooting in Okaloosa County in northwest Florida.
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Senior Airman Roger Fortson in a Dec. 24, 2019 photo. The Air Force announced that an Airman supporting the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida, was shot and killed in an incident involving the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office on May 3, 2024. (U.S. Air Force, via AP)
The deputy had responded to a domestic disturbance call on May 3, but Fortson’s family claims law enforcement knocked on the wrong door. Fortson’s family also said the deputy gave no verbal commands before pulling the trigger.
“It is deeply disturbing that the deputy, without giving any verbal commands, fired multiple shots within seconds of the door opening, killing Roger,” the family said in a statement released by Crump. ” he said.
“Roger was adamant that police were in the wrong apartment because he had been on the phone with his girlfriend for a significant amount of time leading up to the shooting and there was no one else in the apartment,” the family added in a statement.
Video shows a deputy walking up to the door of the brown apartment around 4:30 p.m. and waiting outside, seemingly checking for noise coming from the unit. All that can be heard is a dog barking, then the deputy moves to the side of the door.
About 25 seconds later, a deputy knocked on the door and yelled, “Sheriff’s Office, please open the door.” He then repeated it before Fortson opened the door at his side with a gun in his right hand.
The deputy fired several shots and Fortson fell backwards to the ground while the deputy yelled, “Drop the gun, drop the gun.”
“There it is,” Forston can be heard saying in a distressed voice. “I don’t have one.”
A deputy is then heard calling for EMS.
Sheriff Eric Aden of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office disputes claims that deputies were called to the wrong apartment, saying the investigation raises many questions before determining whether the officers’ actions were justified. He said it was necessary to answer.
“I am aware of false press releases and other comments that say the deputy entered the wrong apartment, implying that he broke through the door and entered Mr. Fortson’s residence,” Aiden said at a Thursday news conference. ” “As you will see in the video you are about to watch, these statements are inaccurate.”
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The family of Roger Fortson, 23, who was shot and killed by police as he answered his apartment door last week. The family’s attorney, Ben Crump, is also in the photo. (Reuters)
“What we know at this point is that the deputy turned himself in not once, but twice,” Fortson said. “At the door, he identified himself as a law enforcement officer and had a firearm in his hand.” The deputy knocked on the correct door and did not block the peephole or obstruct the view.
He added that law enforcement values transparency and looks forward to the FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) and state attorney’s reports.
It remains unclear who called police on the day of the shooting and why.
Other body camera footage shows the woman meeting with a deputy at the apartment complex and leading him to Apartment 1401, where the woman said she heard noises that sounded like domestic violence two weeks ago.
However, witnesses had no reason to suspect that there was a disturbance at the apartment on the day of the shooting because Fortson was home alone. Because of this, the family suspects that the deputy was directed to the wrong door.
Crump said Fortson was on a FaceTime call with his girlfriend when he heard a knock on the door. He asked, “Who is that?” But he never heard back, Crump said of his girlfriend’s account.
Body camera screenshot of Roger Fortson answering the door with a gun as a deputy points gun at him. (Reuters)
Fortson then retrieved the gun, which he legally owned, and walked back through the living room toward the door, Crump said.
“He was minding his own business in his apartment, and then…this tragic chain of events started happening,” Crump said.
According to Reuters, Crump’s office also released a FaceTime video of a call between Fortson and his girlfriend, which shows Fortson lying mortally wounded, moaning, “I can’t breathe.” It is said that he was captured saying this. The newspaper said the camera appeared to be pointed at a ceiling fan and did not show Fortson or his deputy.
The Air Force said Mr. Forston supported special operations forces at Hurlburt Field.
“They took a patriot from us,” Crump said at a news conference with his family. “He respected authority. If he had known they were police he would have just…opened the apartment.”
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Crump was also the attorney for the family of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who worked as an emergency medical technician. Breonna Taylor died in similar circumstances to Fortson when police entered her apartment with a drug warrant.
Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend at the time, opened fire, hitting one of the officers who came through the door, and the officer returned fire, striking Taylor multiple times. No drugs or cash were found in Taylor’s apartment.
Crump said Fortson always dreamed of becoming a pilot, was a patriot, and was a good young man who followed rules and respected authority.
Reuters contributed to this report.
