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AIR FORCE AIRMAN FATALLY SHOT AT FLORIDA APARTMENT BY DEPUTIES WHO HAD WRONG
APARTMENT: LAWYER

By David Fischer | Associated Press
Published  May 9, 2024 8:38am EDT
Florida
FOX 13 News

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MIAMI, Fla. (AP) - Deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida
apartment complex burst into the wrong unit and fatally shot a Black U.S. Air
Force airman who was home alone when they saw he was armed with a gun, an
attorney for the man’s family said Wednesday.





Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who was based at the Special Operations Wing at
Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when the
shooting happened on May 3.

READ: 44 years later: Thursday marks tragic anniversary of 1980 Sunshine Skyway
Bridge disaster



Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement that Fortson was on a
Facetime call with a woman at the time of the encounter.

According to Crump, the woman, whom Crump didn’t identify, said Fortson was
alone in his apartment when he heard a knock at the door. He asked who was there
but didn’t get a response. A few minutes later, Fortson heard a louder knock but
didn’t see anyone when he looked through the peephole, Crump said, citing the
woman’s account.

This photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, shows Senior Airman Roger Fortson in
a Dec. 24, 2019, photo. The Air Force says the airman supporting its Special
Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Fla., was shot and killed on May 3, 2024,
during an incide

Expand

The woman said Fortson was concerned and went to retrieve his gun, which Crump
said was legally owned.

As Fortson walked back through his living room, deputies burst through the door,
saw that Fortson 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 shot, Crump said.

Fortson died at a hospital, officials said. The deputy involved in the shooting
was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

The woman said Fortson wasn’t causing a disturbance during their FaceTime call
and believes that the deputies must have had the wrong apartment, Crump’s
statement said.

"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," Crump said. "His family and
the public deserve to know what occurred in the moments leading up to this
tragedy."

Crump is a nationally known attorney based in Tallahassee, Florida. He has been
involved in multiple high-profile law enforcement shooting cases involving Black
people, including those of Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Tyre
Nichols and George Floyd. 

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Crump and Fortson's family plan to speak at a news conference in Fort Walton
Beach on Thursday morning.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to an email or
voicemail from The Associated Press seeking comment about Crump’s claims. But
Sheriff Eric Aden posted a statement on Facebook Wednesday afternoon expressing
sadness about the shooting.

"At this time, we humbly ask for our community’s patience as we work to
understand the facts that resulted in this tragic event," Aden said.

The sheriff’s office said in a statement last week that a deputy responding to a
call of a disturbance in progress at the apartment complex reacted in
self-defense after encountering an armed man. The office did not offer details
on what kind of disturbance deputies were responding to or who called them.

The sheriff's office also declined to immediately identify the responding
deputies or their races. Officials said earlier this week that the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement and the local State Attorney’s Office will
investigate the shooting.

FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it
is highly unlikely the agency will have any further comment until the
investigation is complete.

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.

Fortson’s death draws striking similarities to other Black people killed in
recent years by police in their homes, in circumstances that involved officers
responding to the wrong address or responding to service calls with wanton uses
of deadly force.

In 2018, a white former Dallas police offer fatally shot Botham Jean, an unarmed
Black man, after mistaking his apartment for her own. Amber Guyger, the former
officer, was found guilty of murder the following year and was sentenced to 10
years in prison.

In 2019, a white former Fort Worth, Texas, officer fatally shot Atatiana
Jefferson through a rear window of her home after responding to a nonemergency
call reporting that Jefferson’s front door was open. Aaron Dean, the former
officer, was found guilty of manslaughter in 2022 and was sentenced to nearly 12
years in prison.

Crump has represented families in both cases as part of his ongoing effort to
force accountability for the killings of Black people at the hands of police.

"What I’m trying to do, as much as I can, even sometimes singlehandedly, is
increase the value of Black life," Crump told the Associated Press in 2021
following the conviction a former Minneapolis officer in the murder of George
Floyd.




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