By Jessica Schladebeck
New York Daily News
OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida sheriff’s deputy has been fired over the death of Roger Fortson, a Black airman who was fatally shot in the doorway of his apartment.
Fortson, who was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when he was gunned down by Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy Eddie Duran on May 3. The officer had been responding to a domestic violence call at the time.
While announcing Duran’s termination on Friday, Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said the officer’s life was not in danger at any point during the interaction and that he should not have fired his weapon.
“The objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate response to Mr. Fortson’s actions,” Aden said in a statement.
Bodycam footage released last month shows Duran arriving at Fortson’s apartment, then standing outside the door and trying to listen for any commotion inside. After about 30 seconds, he pounds on the door, but no one responds.
He then knocks again, this time identifying himself as law enforcement. Duran knocks one more time, before Fortson, gun in hand, appears in the doorway. The weapon was in his hand and pointed toward the ground at the time.
Duran then shot 23-year-old Fortson four times, just two seconds after he opened his door.
“Mr. Fortson did not make any hostile, attacking movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable,” Aden said.
Fortson’s family has slammed the shooting as “unjustifiable” and speculated the deputy responded to the wrong apartment.
Fortson was alone in the apartment when the shooting occurred, according to the Fortson family’s lawyer.
No criminal charges have been filed, but a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation is ongoing.
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