The Florida sheriff released body camera footage on Thursday showing a deputy fatally shooting Roger Fortson, a Black active-duty airman, inside his own apartment.
Fortson, 23, was shot six times by an unnamed Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy on May 3. Lawyers for Fortson’s family, including civil rights attorney Ben Crump, had claimed that the deputy who shot Fortson had been sent to the wrong apartment. But at Thursday’s news conference in Fort Walton Beach, Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden called those claims false.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said a deputy arrived at Fortson’s apartment complex after a call about a disturbance. In the bodycam footage, a resident walks with the deputy, saying she heard loud noises and arguments coming from Fortson’s apartment and that things sounded like they were “getting out of hand.” She gives him Fortson’s unit number.
After getting off an elevator, the deputy knocks repeatedly on Fortson’s apartment door but gets no audible response. He then declares he’s with the sheriff’s office and demands that Fortson open the door.
Crump said in a statement on Wednesday that Fortson had been on a video call with his girlfriend at the time. After the deputy knocked, the girlfriend heard him ask, “Who is it?” according to Crump. Fortson then grabbed his gun because of concern for his safety since he was alone in his apartment at the time, attorneys at the news conference said.
In the bodycam video, after Fortson opens the door, the deputy shouts at him to “step back” and immediately fires. After shooting Fortson repeatedly, he tells Air Force airman to “drop the gun” multiple times. Fortson, already on the ground, replies, “It’s over there.”
Aden did not take questions after he showed footage at the news conference. “We pride ourselves in our commitment to transparency and accountability,” Aden told reporters.
Crump’s office criticized the deputy’s conduct in the video, noting that he shot first before telling Fortson to put the gun down.
“In the 4½-minute, heavily redacted video, it is troubling that the deputy gave no verbal commands and shot multiple times within a split second of the door being opened, killing Roger,” Crump said in a statement Thursday.
“Was the officer trained to give verbal warnings? Did the officer try to initiate life-saving measures?” Crump added. “Was the officer trained to deal with law-abiding citizens who are registered gun owners?”
In an initial statement on Tuesday, the sheriff’s office described Fortson as an “armed individual” and claimed that the deputy acted in self-defense during the shooting. Aden said Thursday that the deputy involved has been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation involving the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Earlier on Thursday, Crump stood by Chantemekki Fortson, Roger’s mother, as she addressed reporters. She held a framed photo of Roger in uniform in her arms as tears rolled down her face.
“Roger Fortson was the best that America had to offer. He was a patriot,” Crump told reporters during the news conference. “He was fighting for our way of life. He was fighting for everybody.”
Chantemekki Fortson said Thursday that her son was a part of the Air Force’s special missions and aviation unit, and was based at nearby Hurlburt Field in the Florida panhandle.
“He was handpicked. His colonels, all of them have contacted me and told me he was such a special young man,” she told reporters. “Even when I got sick and he wanted to come home, they told him no, because he was so smart, he was so intelligent.”
“They don’t know what they took from me,” she added, as family members hugged her.