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Florida sheriff’s office fires deputy who fatally shot black airman at home By Social Links forcscarglatonyp1 Published May 31, 2024 Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden fired Deputy Eddie
Duran, who fatally shot Senior Airman Roger Fortson on May 3 after
responding to a domestic violence call and being directed to Fortson’s
apartment. Body camera video shows that when the deputy arrived outside
Fortson’s door, he stood silently for 20 seconds outside and listened, but no
voices inside are heard on his body camera. He then pounded on the door, but didn’t identify
himself. He then moved to the side of the door, about 5 feet away (1.5
meters). He waited 15 seconds before pounding on the door again. This time he
yelled, “Sheriff’s office — open the door!” He again moved to the side. Less then 10 seconds later, he moved back in front of
the door and pounded again, announcing himself once more. Fortson, 23, opened the door, his legally purchased
gun in his right hand. It was at his side, pointing to the ground. The deputy
said “Step back” then immediately began firing. Fortson fell backward
onto the floor. Only
then did the deputy yell, “Drop the gun!” The sheriff’s office in a statement said the
investigation found that “Mr. Fortson did not make any hostile, attacking
movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not
objectively reasonable.” “This
tragic incident should have never occurred,” Aden said in the statement. “The
objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate
response to Mr. Fortson’s actions. Mr. Fortson did not commit any crime. By
all accounts, he was an exceptional airman and individual.” No phone number could be immediately found
for Duran. Email and phone messages seeking comment from his attorney John
Whitaker were not immediately returned. According to a sheriff’s report, after the
shooting when other deputies arrived to render aid, Duran walked into the
breezeway outside the unit and struck a wall with his right fist, saying
“F—.” An investigator later asked him why he did
that, and he said he thought that he was “about to get shot.” “It was, um, just kind of letting out
whatever, you know, built up emotion and frustration,” he said, according to
the internal report. “It was just one of these things where, you know, as I’m
standing there thinking I’m about to get shot, I’m about to die,” he said. “Once said and done, it was just all the
emotion going, ‘Oh my God, like just let it out,’” he said. A
criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is
ongoing. The apartment where Fortson lived is about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from Hurlburt Field, where Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron as a special missions aviator serving on an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship. One of his roles was to load the plane’s 30mm and 105mm cannons during battles. He earned an Air Medal with combat device, which is typically awarded after 20 flights in a combat zone or for conspicuous valor or achievement on a single mission. He had no criminal record. Sabu Williams, president of the Okaloosa
County NAACP, applauded Aden’s action. “We appreciate what the internal investigation has shown and what the sheriff has done to this point,” Williams told The Associated Press. “We don’t think this is the end of it, obviously.” He said the NAACP has a good relationship
with the Republican sheriff. “Some of us may have wanted things to happen a lot quicker, but I know due diligence has to take place,” Williams said. From
2003 through 2014 Duran served in the U.S. Army, with a military career that
included a combat deployment to Iraq in 2008, according to the sheriff’s
investigative report on the Fortson shooting. He
had worked in military intelligence, and then moved into military law
enforcement. He received an honorable discharge, the report states. After serving in the Army, Duran
began a law enforcement career in Oklahoma, where he worked as a police
officer and canine officer from 2015 to 2019. He also served as a fire
marshal for the Altus, Oklahoma, fire department around 2016-2017, according
to the report. Duran
joined the sheriff’s office in July 2019, but resigned two years later. He
rejoined the sheriff’s office 11 months ago.
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https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/us/roger-forston-florida-airman-shot-deputy-fired/index.html  Florida deputy who shot airman in his home has been fired for using unreasonable deadly force, sheriff’s office says By Kaila Nichols, Carlos Suarez and Denise Royal, CNN Fri May 31, 2024
CNN — The
Florida sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Black man in his home has
been fired, the sheriff’s office announced Friday. The
decision followed an internal investigation into the former deputy, Eddie
Duran. This is the first time Duran’s identity has been publicly disclosed
since the shooting earlier this month. A separate criminal investigation into
the deputy’s actions is ongoing with the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement. “The
administrative investigation determined the deputy’s use of deadly force was
not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy,” a news release from
the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office stated. Deputies
responded May 3 to an apartment after receiving a call for “a disturbance in
progress,” Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden said in a previous statement. According
to the internal investigation, a woman at the complex told the deputy about a
disturbance in apartment 1401 she said was “getting out of hand.” Body
camera footage shows shortly after Roger Fortson opened the door of the
apartment, the deputy in the video says “step back” before firing his weapon.
Fortson was standing in the doorway with his hands down and a firearm in his
right hand. Five
shots can be heard on the footage. Fortson was pronounced dead at a hospital. In
an interview with investigators, Duran claimed Fortson’s arm was “slightly
canted, meaning not straight down.” He described it as being “in a manner so
that his arm is slightly up.” But
the investigation determined otherwise. According to the statement released
with the internal affairs investigation, “the firearm was pointed at the
ground sufficiently enough for the former deputy to clearly see the rear face
of the rear sight,” and “the investigation concluded that Mr. Fortson did not
point the gun in the former deputy’s direction.” “This
tragic incident should have never occurred,” Aden said in a Friday release.
“The objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate
response to Mr. Fortson’s actions. Mr. Fortson did not commit any crime. By
all accounts, he was an exceptional airman and individual.” Duran
was hired by the sheriff’s office in July 2019 and resigned in November 2021
to relocate out of state with his spouse, the investigation stated. He
joined the sheriff’s office again in June 2023. He was up-to-date with his
response to resistance, firearms, active assailant, active shooter and
domestic violence training sessions. His most recent firearm training was in
September 2023, according to the investigation. CNN
has reached out to Duran’s attorney for comment. Christina
Maxouris, Shawn Nottingham, Melissa Alonso and Dakin
Andone contributed to this report. This story has been updated with additional information. |
Timelines are a vital source of information. Follow them. BEMA International
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Newly released police records and phone calls from a
Florida sheriff's department raise more questions over how the deputy
who shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson in his home this month was
led to the apartment by bystanders. Fortson, 23, a senior special operations airman stationed at Hurlburt Field, was shot multiple times within seconds of answering the door to his Fort Walton Beach apartment on May 3. The deputy responding to the call of a disturbance saw Fortson had his legally owned firearm held to his side and immediately opened fire, giving the airman no time to respond. The sheriff's office released the heavily redacted information to Military.com on Tuesday. The records include the initial 911 call, another 911 call around the time of the shooting, and the incident report completed at the time of the shooting, as well as dispatch notes. Dispatch call history sheets provided by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office to Military.com identify two apartment numbers that were not Fortson's, "Unit 1101" and "Unit 1404." The other two units are written in the logs, and it was not immediately clear why they were mentioned. "Florida statutes dictate what information can be made publicly available at this time as the investigation into this tragic incident remains ongoing; therefore, the records will be released in a redacted format with the statutory exemption cited," the sheriff's office said in a press release. "This remains an incredibly difficult time for everyone in Okaloosa County." The deputy who shot Fortson has been placed on leave and is facing an administrative investigation, as well as a state probe into the matter. The name of the officer involved was redacted in the police reports provided to Military.com. Witness names and evidence collected were also redacted. The call for the reported disturbance came into the Okaloosa County Sheriff's nonemergency line May 3 from a woman working at the front desk of the leasing office for the residential complex. The woman provided 911 with information on the disturbance that she received from someone else and told dispatch the apartment number was 1401 -- Fortson's unit. "I literally just got off the phone with her," said the woman, whose name was redacted from the records and phone call. "She said that it's been going on for like 15 to 20 minutes. ... When she called me, she said that she was calling me because it sounded like it was starting to get out of hand. OK ... she said that it sounded like it's sort of getting physical, so I'm not really sure."
The dispatch officer then asks, "Is there any way you're able to hear or
see them?" The woman from the leasing office walks over to the area and says, "I'm right outside of the unit, but I can't hear. They're on the fourth floor, so I can't hear anything from here as of right now." The leasing office employee also relayed a story to the dispatch officer on May 3 about how a few weeks prior she heard a disturbance between a man and a woman while walking on the sidewalk and said, based on the call she received from the tenant, that it was possible it was the same unit. "I was hearing like someone, like, a guy yelling at a girl saying like, 'Shut the f--- up ... you stupid b----' or something like that, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from," the woman said on the call. "So, by what she's saying, that might have been them." Other records from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office
obtained by Military.com earlier this month showed that, since the beginning
of 2023, there had been 10 police calls to another unit in Fortson's building
-- apartment 1412 -- for welfare checks, disturbances and an emergency
medical service call for a hemorrhage. There had been no calls to Fortson's
apartment, 1401, within that same time period. "This further shows that the deputies got the wrong
apartment, contrary to what the sheriff continues to assert," said
Natalie Jackson, an attorney for the Fortson family. According to attorneys for Fortson's family, as well as the body camera footage of the shooting itself, the senior airman was home alone with his dog and on a FaceTime video call with his girlfriend when the police officer arrived at his door. Jackson said Fortson did not argue with his girlfriend during the chat. After the deputy knocked on the door twice and announced himself, Fortson opened the door while holding his handgun to his side; the fatal shooting occurred within about three seconds. The deputy told Fortson to step back and then just seconds later began firing at him, the police body camera footage shows. The deputy told the airman to drop his legally owned firearm only after Fortson was lying on the floor of his apartment, fatally shot. Meanwhile, a subsequent 911 call on May 3 provided to Military.com by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office was placed from another resident of the building, who said, "They've been arguing for almost an hour now" and then reported they heard gunshots. "I just heard, what sounded like, three or four gunshots, and a bunch of running and screaming," the caller tells dispatch. "I know there's a kid up there, and that's why I'm freaking out." The individual's name and unit number were redacted from
the audio of the call. "The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office remains committed to transparency and accountability, as we work to determine the facts and to take appropriate action," the department said in a press release. The sheriff's office said it is proceeding with an administrative internal affairs investigation of the shooting, alongside a criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The original audio of the 911 nonemergency call shows that a person who works at the building was relaying secondhand information on the apartment number where the alleged disturbance was happening. Additionally, a subsequent 911 call from a neighbor details reaction to the shooting. Related Topics: Military Headlines Air Force Topics Air Force Special Operations Special Operations Hurlburt Field
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