A Black U.S. Air Force airman was fatally shot in his home by Florida deputies, who mistakenly burst into the wrong apartment while responding to a disturbance call, according to his family’s attorney.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, who was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when he was gunned down by law enforcement officers on Friday. He was on a Facetime call at the time with an unnamed woman, civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement on Wednesday.
Citing her account of the confrontation, Crump said 23-year-old Fortson was alone in his apartment when he heard a knock at his door, prompting him to call out and ask who was there. He received no answer, though there was another louder, more forceful knock a short time later. This time, Fortson checked the peep hole, but he did not see anyone on the other side, the unidentified woman recalled. Still, he was worried, so he went to retrieve his gun, which he legally owned, according to Crump.
As Fortson returned, deputies busted into his apartment, saw he was armed and shot him six times, according to Crump’s statement. The woman said Fortson was on the ground, saying, “I can’t breathe,” after he was struck in the gunfire, the civil rights attorney noted.
Fortson later died at the hospital. The deputy who shot him has since been placed on administrative leave.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office on Friday said the deputy was responding to call of a disturbance in progress and “reacted in self-defense after he encountered a 23-year-old man armed with a gun.” The officer’s name has not been released.
Fortson’s Facetime partner emphasized that the airman was not causing any problems or being combative during their call. She believes the deputies were meant to respond elsewhere in the apartment building, but entered Fortson’s unit instead.
“The circumstances surrounding Roger’s death raise serious questions that demand immediate answers from authorities, especially considering the alarming witness statement that the police entered the wrong apartment,” Crump said.
“We are calling for transparency in the investigation into Roger’s death and the immediate release of body cam video to the family,” he continued. “His family and the public deserve to know what occurred in the moments leading up to this tragedy.”
Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron as a special missions aviator, where one of his roles as a member of the squadron’s AC-130J Ghostrider aircrew was to load the gunship’s 30mm and 105mm cannons during missions.
With News Wire Services
