By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – A Florida sheriff’s office on Friday fired a deputy who shot and killed a black U.S. Air Force pilot, saying the use of deadly force was not reasonable.
That was the conclusion of an internal affairs investigation by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office into the May 3 killing of 23-year-old Roger Fortson in Fort Walton Beach, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
A criminal investigation is underway into former deputy Eddie Duran, who shot and killed Fortson, the sheriff’s office said.
“This tragic incident should never have happened,” said Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden. “The objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate response to Mr. Fortson’s actions.”
The sheriff added: “Mr. Fortson has not committed any crime. He was an exceptional airman and individual in every respect.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Fortson’s family, said in a statement that the firing was a step in the right direction, but that “it is not complete justice for Roger and his family.” This deputy’s actions were not only negligent, they were criminal.”
The deputy’s body camera footage, released earlier this month, showed him responding to a report of domestic violence at an apartment complex. An employee of the complex met Duran when he arrived and directed him to Fortson’s apartment.
Duran pounded on Fortson’s door unannounced, followed by even louder knocking and twice announcing that he was with the sheriff.
The body camera video shows Fortson opening the door and holding a gun next to him and pointing it down. He did not point the gun at the deputy. Duran immediately opened fire several times at close range. Fortson died in hospital.
Fortson’s family maintains that the sheriff’s deputy accidentally targeted Fortson’s apartment. They pointed out that he was on the phone with his girlfriend before the shooting and no one else was in the apartment.
The sheriff’s department investigation revealed that someone at the apartment complex called a sheriff’s department non-emergency phone line to report that they had heard a couple fighting in Fortson’s apartment.
But Crump has said Fortson was FaceTiming with his girlfriend when he heard a knock on his door. He asked, “Who is it?” but received no response, Crump said of the girlfriend’s story.
Fortson then grabbed a gun he legally owned and walked back through his living room to the door, Crump said.
The killing was reminiscent of an unannounced police raid in Louisville, Kentucky, in March 2020, when police burst into the apartment of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was an emergency medical technician, and killed her. Police had obtained a warrant to raid the apartment because it was mistaken for the home of a suspect.
Taylor’s death, along with the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police weeks later, sparked a global wave of protests against racism in law enforcement in the summer of 2020.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colo.; Editing by William Mallard)
