The family of a black U.S. Air Force aviator who was shot and killed by police after breaking into his apartment in Florida’s Panhandle said Thursday they want to correct an incorrect account released by authorities about the encounter that led to his death.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family of Senior Airman Roger Fortson, said Fortson was attacked by sheriff’s deputies who broke into his apartment (“his castle”). He said he was unaware of the incident and grabbed a “legally owned gun” to protect himself. Himself.
“For some reason they thought he was a bad guy, but he was a good guy. He was a great guy. He was an extraordinary guy,” Crump said.
Fortson’s mother, Chantemekki Fortson, entered the news conference room with Crump carrying a framed portrait of her son in uniform. When Crump told her about her son’s death in her Fort Walton Beach apartment, she burst into tears.
“My baby was shot,” she said.
Late Thursday afternoon, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office released body camera footage to reporters that it says contradicts the family’s claims. County Sheriff Eric Eiden denied Mr. Crump’s claims that the deputy went to the wrong apartment, blocked the peephole in the door and failed to turn himself in.
Video shows deputies arriving at a Fort Walton Beach apartment on May 3 and speaking to a woman who said she heard an argument outside. The deputy then takes the elevator and walks down the hallway outside.
The video shows the deputy knocking on the door and walking away out of sight. he shouted twice. “Sheriff’s Office!” Open the door! “
Fortson opens the door and can be seen holding what appears to be a handgun, pointed at the floor. The deputy yelled, “Stand back!” and fire an off-shot. And he yelled, “Drop the gun!” Throw away your gun! ”
“There it is,” Fortson says.
“Drop the gun!” the deputy yells back.
“I don’t have it,” Fortson says, lying on the ground.
The deputy then calls emergency personnel over the radio.
After the video was released, Crump issued a statement saying the officer did not tell Fortson to drop his gun before firing “multiple times within seconds of the door opening.”
“We categorically maintain that police were in the wrong apartment, as Mr. Roger 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 statement said.
The sheriff’s office declined to identify the responding deputy or his race. Officials said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the local state attorney’s office will investigate the shooting.
Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney, called the shooting a “unjustified killing,” and the sheriff’s office acknowledged the shooting rather than create a counter-argument that the deputy was acting in self-defense. Said it was necessary.
“He was just in the apartment minding his own business,” Crump said of the deputy. “They could have made sure they were in the right apartment. They had a duty to make sure they were in the right apartment before they burst in the door.”
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to emails or voicemails from The Associated Press seeking comment about Crump’s account.
The office said in a statement last week that deputies responding to a call of a disturbance in progress at an apartment complex responded in self-defense after encountering an armed man. The office did not provide details such as what kind of disturbance the lawmakers were responding to or who reported it.
Fortson, an Atlanta native, was shot six times and died at a hospital, Crump said. The deputy who shot him was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
Crump said Fortson had a constitutional right to possess a firearm and to object to an unreasonable search by police. He led his family and other lawyers in shouting, “Clear Roger’s name!”
Crump said Fortson always wanted to join the U.S. Air Force and did so after graduating from high school. He was based in the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field. He was a special mission aviator and one of his roles was to load gunships’ cannons during missions.
“He was living his dream. In doing so, he was going to improve the situation for his mother and siblings and give them a better chance at the American dream,” Crump said.
Crump added that Fortson was talking on FaceTime with his girlfriend, who has not yet been identified, when officers broke into his apartment on May 3.
Without her, the family would never have known what happened, he said. The girlfriend informed her mother, who drove to Fort Walton Beach and learned that her son had died.
At the hospital, deputies approached Chantemekki Fortson and she told them: Please take me to my baby. I just want to see my child,” she said at a press conference.
In 2018, a white former Dallas police officer shot and killed an unarmed Botham Jean, who he mistook for his own apartment. Former police officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In 2019, a white former police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson through the back window of her home after responding to a non-emergency call about her front door being open. Former police officer Aaron Dean was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
