A jury found the former Florida sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed U.S. Airman Roger Fortson not guilty on Thursday after prosecutors charged him with one count of manslaughter.
A jury acquitted Eddie Duran, 40, after a four-day trial and approximately two hours of deliberation. He faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Duran was an Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy when he responded to an alleged domestic violence call from the apartment complex where Roger Fortson lived alone in May 2024.
A leasing consultant from the apartment complex called the sheriff’s non-emergency line after receiving a complaint from the tenant who lived in the apartment below the airman.
Duran arrived, pounded on Roger Fortson’s door and twice announced he was with the sheriff’s office, telling Fortson to “open up” while deliberately staying out of the peephole’s view.
Fortson, a legal gun owner, opened the door with a gun pointed downward at his side, and Duran shot and killed him within seconds. He was alone inside his apartment aside from his dog and had just been on a video call with his girlfriend, planning a vacation.
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.
Duran testified Wednesday that he believed his life was in danger when Fortson opened the door holding a gun. Duran said he saw the firearm pointed at him at an “upward angle.”
“The decision to shoot only came from the door opening, the firearm being up in my direction and the 100 percent belief that I was about to be shot,” Duran said, according to WEAR.
During his closing argument, assistant state attorney Mark Alderman said, “He’s not telling the truth. That gun was pointed at the ground the entire time. And he wants to give you evidence that Roger was aggressive or a threat.”
Duran’s attorney Rod Smith said, “[Duran] didn’t know the guy. He never had an encounter with him in his life. There’s no motive. The only reason he pulls that gun is he fears for his life. … He defends himself.”
Less than a month after the shooting, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office fired Duran following an internal affairs investigation that determined his use of deadly force “was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy.”
In an interview with Atlanta Black Star before the trial, Fortson’s mother, Meka Fortson, said Duran appeared confident that he would escape accountability.
“He has no remorse. He has no repentance,” she said earlier this month.
The jury’s decision comes weeks after Duran tried to have the case dismissed, citing the stand your ground law.
“You can’t just kill people because you wear a badge,” Meka Fortson said. “Roger deserves to still be here. Roger deserves accountability.”
The fight for justice is not over, Fortson’s family and attorney Ben Crump filed a federal lawsuit against Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden, Duran and others.
