Deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida apartment complex went to the wrong unit and shot and killed a black U.S. Air Force pilot who was home alone with a gun, a man said. The family’s attorney made the announcement 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.
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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.”
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, shown in this Dec. 24, 2019 photo, was a U.S. Air Force Special Operations Airman at Hurlburt Field, Florida, when he was shot and killed in his apartment during an incident on May 3, 2024. He supported the group. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office is involved. (U.S. Air Force, via AP)
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 eyewitness testimony that police entered the wrong apartment,” Crump said.
“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 did not immediately respond to emails and voicemails from The Associated Press seeking comment on Crump’s claims. However, Sheriff Eric Aden posted a statement on Facebook Wednesday afternoon expressing his sadness over the shooting.
“At this time, we humbly ask for the patience of our community as we work to understand the facts that led to this tragic event,” Aden said.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement last week that deputies responded in self-defense after responding to a report 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. 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 fly the gunship’s 30 mm and 105 mm guns during missions. It was to load the gun.
Fortson’s death bears striking similarities to other black people killed by police in their own homes in recent years, with officers responding to the wrong address or using deadly force without reason. The situation was such that they responded to requests for rescue.
In 2018, a white former Dallas police officer shot and killed Botham Jean, an unarmed black man he mistook for his own apartment. Former police officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murder the following year 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 convicted of manslaughter in 2022 and sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
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Crump is representing the families in both cases as part of an ongoing effort to hold accountable police for the killings of Black people.
“What I’m trying to do, in any way that I can, sometimes alone, is to uplift the value of black lives,” Crump said after the 2021 conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer for the murder of George Floyd. He later spoke to the Associated Press.
Fort Walton Beach is located between Panama City Beach and Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.
