A sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Florida pilot was fired from his apartment earlier this month, authorities announced Friday.
Deputy Eddie Duran was “terminated” following an internal affairs investigation, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The investigation found that Duran’s “use of deadly force” in the death of Senior Airman Roger Fortson “was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy,” the sheriff’s office said.
On May 3, 23-year-old Fortson arrived was in his apartment in the Florida Panhandle city of Fort Walton Beach when he was fatally shot by Duran. Fortson was stationed in the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, about five miles from his apartment.
Sheriff’s investigators determined that Duran was initially dispatched to an “ongoing physical disturbance” at Fortson’s apartment complex, the sheriff’s office said in its news release Friday.
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
The sheriff’s office says that when Duran arrived at the complex, he was directed by a complex employee to unit 1401, where the employee stated that this was “the location of the disturbance,” adding that “there have been recent unreported disturbances had occurred on or around the complex. same apartment,” the sheriff’s office reported.
However, a statement previously released by the family contradicts that claim, claiming that Fortson had a FaceTime call with his girlfriend in the lead-up to the shooting and claimed the deputy was directed to the wrong apartment.
A body camera video released by the sheriff’s office earlier this month showed a deputy knocking on the door of Fortson’s apartment and announcing he was at the sheriff’s office. As the door opens, the deputy shouts for Fortson to step back.
In the bodycam video, the deputy initially knocks without announcing himself. About 30 seconds later he knocks again and says he is at the sheriff’s office and to open the door. He knocks and announces himself about 10 seconds later. Within seconds of Fortson opening the door, the deputy shoots Fortson, who is seen with what appears to be a gun at his side.
Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Fortson family, previously stated at a news conference that Fortson was on FaceTime with his girlfriend and went to retrieve his legal gun after hearing the knock on the door and not hearing who was there.
Crump’s company also previously released a video of the FaceTime call that appears to begin after the shooting, showing the ceiling of Fortson’s apartment.
“I can’t breathe,” Fortson says, groaning, in the video.
Sheriff’s investigators allege that when Fortson opened the door, Duran saw Fortson “holding a firearm in his right hand,” but that the gun was “pointed toward the ground sufficiently that the former deputy could clearly see the back of the rear sight.” “
Fortson “did not physically resist” Duran in any way and the investigation concluded that Mr. Forston did not point the gun in the direction of the former deputy, the sheriff’s office said Friday.
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said in a statement Friday that “this tragic incident should never have happened. The objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate response to Mr. Fortson’s actions. Mr. Fortson has not committed any crime. By all accounts he was an exceptional pilot and individual.”
— Alex Sundby contributed to this report.
