US airman shot and killed by police in Florida
The Florida police have made public the body camera footage from a deputy sheriff who fatally shot a member of the US Air Force at his residence.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, aged 23, was transported to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, according to officials.
A representative for the victim’s family, citing a witness, alleged that the police entered the wrong residence.
Authorities have refuted this assertion, stating that the deputy acted in self-defense upon encountering Fortson armed with a gun.
The incident occurred on May 3 at Fortson’s residence, situated 5 miles (8km) from the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida, where he was stationed.
The deputy involved in the shooting, whose identity has not been disclosed by the police, has been placed on administrative leave.
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden stated that the shooting is under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office.
Aden pledged to ensure “transparency and accountability” throughout the process but noted that such investigations require time.
“I want to reassure you that we are not concealing, obscuring, or taking any measures that would lead to a hasty judgment of Mr. Fortson or our deputy,” Aden added.
The sheriff presented a four-minute video captured by the body camera worn by the deputy who discharged the fatal shots.
The footage depicted police arriving at Fortson’s apartment complex and being guided to an elevator by a witness who reported hearing disturbances from an apartment.
The deputy then approached the front door alone, knocked, and identified himself as a member of the “sheriff’s office” twice.
Fortson was seen holding a gun in his right hand as he opened the door. The deputy then fired multiple shots as soon as the door opened, telling him afterwards to drop the weapon.
“It’s over there. I don’t have it,” Fortson said as he lay on the floor.
A lawyer for the Fortson family, Ben Crump, said in a news conference on Thursday that Fortson “was the best America had to offer”.
“He was a patriot. He was a US airman, special ops. He was fighting for our way of life. He was fighting for everybody,” Mr Crump said.
His mother, Chantimekki Fortson, broke down crying as Mr Crump recounted the moments before the airman was shot.
“My baby was my everything,” she said.
Mr Crump said at the time of the shooting Fortson was on a video call with a friend, who described what she heard to his family’s legal team.
The friend said the airman heard a knock on his apartment door and asked who was there, but received no response. He then heard a second, “very aggressive knock” but did not see anyone when he looked through the peephole.
It is at this point that Fortson is said to have grown concerned and retrieved his gun, which the lawyer said was legally owned.
As Fortson returned to his living room, the witness said police burst through the door, saw that the resident was armed and shot him six times.
Mr Crump said the witness believed the officers were in the wrong apartment, as Fortson was alone at the time with no disturbance at his residence.
The sheriff on Thursday denied that officers had gone to the wrong address.
In an earlier statement, the sheriff’s office said the deputy “reacted in self defence after he encountered a 23-year-old man armed with a gun and after the deputy had identified himself as law enforcement.”
Speaking to reporters, Mr Crump accused police of trying to “justify unjustifiable excessive use of force”.
Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron, according to the US Air Force, and entered active duty in November 2019.
According to Mr Crump, he enlisted in the military after graduating from high school in Atlanta, Georgia with honours.
Mr Crump, a civil rights lawyer based in Florida, has worked on multiple high-profile cases of police-involved deaths of black Americans, including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Tyre Nichols and Breonna Taylor.
