The teenage brother of a Black airman fatally shot by a Florida sheriff’s deputy earlier this year has been killed in a shooting just outside Atlanta, authorities said.
Andre Fortson, 16, was found shot to death near the family’s apartment complex in DeKalb County on Tuesday. According to DeKalb County police, two groups were allegedly shooting at each other for reasons that were not immediately clear.
News of Forston’s death comes just three months after the deadly shooting of his older brother.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was gunned down at his Fort Walton Beach, Fla. apartment on May 3.
Body camera footage shows the older Forston answering his door to a law enforcement officer while holding a gun pointed at the ground. He was then shot four times by Eddie Duran, a now-fired Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputy, and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
A sheriff’s office internal affairs investigation found that Duran’s “use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable.” He was fired on May 31.
“The Fortson family is battling the loss of yet another young member of their family,” Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the family, said Wednesday in a statement.
“This has been an incredibly challenging time for them with the loss of Roger,” he continued. “Losing the life of yet another young family member — a mere child — has been an absolute devastation.”
One of the gunmen involved in the shooting has since been arrested and charged with aggravated assault, police said.
The suspect has been identified as 20-year-old Quintavious Zellner, according to local TV station WSB.
With News Wire Services
