The Florida sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot Air Force Airman Roger Fortson in his apartment doorway felt justified based on “a stare,” according to a newly released report on the Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office’s internal investigation.
Deputy Eddie Duran told investigators the first thing he saw was the 23-year-old’s eyes. What he perceived as an aggressive look prompted him to open fire within two to three seconds of Fortson opening his door.
“When I saw his eyes, I saw aggression,” Duran said, according to the sheriff’s report. “It was a stare that was fixated 100% on me, not eyebrows raised, not, ‘Hey what’s going on? Why are you here?’ It was a stare … that showed me there was aggression.”
Body camera footage released earlier in May by the sheriff’s office, however, appeared to show Duran firing on the senior airman with little warning and no provocation. He died later at a hospital.
Forston can be seen holding a gun in his right hand, with his arm extended downward and the muzzle pointing at the floor. His other hand is up with his palm facing out toward Duran in what appears to be a self-defensive “stop” motion. His dog, Chloe, was by his side.
The fatal shooting occurred on May 3 when Duran responded to a call via the non-emergency police line about a domestic disturbance at the Fort Walton Beach apartment complex. When Duran arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon, a female employee of the complex directed him straight to Fortson’s apartment on the fourth floor, saying, “It sounds like it’s getting really out of hand.”
No voices or noises could be heard on the bodycam video while the officer listened silently outside Fortson’s apartment for twenty seconds. He then began pounding on the door and announced twice that he was with the sheriff’s office, telling Fortson to “open up,” all the while avoiding being seen through the peephole.
It was later determined that the young airman was alone at the time and had just been on a video call with his girlfriend, planning a vacation. The sheriff’s office concluded that he was holding his legally owned gun and did not physically resist or make hostile movements when Duran fatally shot him.
County 911 dispatch records show that officers had been called to a different fourth-floor apartment ten times in the previous eight months but never to Fortson’s apartment reported the AirForceTimes.
Duran explained to investigators, however, that he believed that Fortson’s taking a slight step forward when he ordered him to step back indicated aggression. He also cited what he claimed was the tilt of Fortson’s arm holding the gun.
Duran was terminated from the sheriff’s department on May 31, but that’s not enough, says Fortson’s grieving family members and friends, who spoke out alongside their attorney, Benjamin Crump, in a recent news conference in Atlanta, where Fortson grew up.
“I put so many pictures of my baby on social media,” his mother, Chantemekki Fortson, said at the news conference, where she spoke glowingly of her son, who served in overseas combat zones and was stationed at nearby Hurlburt Field. “He would never put aggression in his eyes if he wanted to. Roger was helping to raise his 16-year-old brother.”
“I want justice for my child. You’re not going to throw me a bone [by firing him]. Take his credentials. Take his pension,” she continued. “Bring up charges against him.”
“This tragic incident should have never occurred,” stated Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden in a statement announcing his firing. “The objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate response to Mr. Fortson’s actions. Mr. Fortson did not commit any crime. By all accounts, he was an exceptional airman and individual.”
