The mother of an Air Force senior airman who was fatally shot in his home last month by a Florida deputy said she and her family will not be appeased by the firing of the deputy and demanded that he be criminally charged.
“I want justice for my child,” Roger Fortson’s mother, Chantemekki Fortson, said at a news conference Monday, days after Eddie Duran was fired by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. “You’re not going to throw me a bone. Take his credentials. Bring up charges against him.”
Duran, 38, was responding to a call about a physical disturbance on May 3 when he shot Fortson in his Fort Walton Beach home, about six miles from the nation’s largest Air Force base. Fortson, who had been home alone with his small dog and on a FaceTime call with his girlfriend, answered the door with a gun in his right hand pointed directly to the ground. His family and their attorneys have said he owned the gun legally. Duran shot Fortson, 23, multiple times after he opened the door.
In its initial statement about the shooting, the sheriff’s office said the deputy had “reacted in self-defense.”
In response to a request for comment on Monday, a sheriff’s office spokesperson referred to Sheriff Eric Aden's statement from Friday.
On Friday afternoon, nearly a month after the shooting, Aden said his decision to fire Duran was made after the completion of an internal affairs investigation and a review of his body camera video. That investigation is separate from the criminal investigation that remains ongoing with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, he said. Both the administrative and criminal investigations are required under Florida law after a deputy is involved in a fatal shooting.
“This tragic incident should have never occurred,” Aden said. “The objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate response to Mr. Fortson’s actions.”
He added: “Mr. Fortson did not commit any crime. By all accounts, he was an exceptional airman and individual.”
A sheriff’s internal affairs investigation released Friday concluded that “Mr. Fortson did not make any hostile, attacking movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable.”
Duran did not return a voicemail at a number listed for him. His attorney, John Whitaker, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Chantemekki Fortson said she believes the sheriff’s department was pressured into acting by some members of the Air Force who have been critical of Fortson’s killing.
“They didn’t do that because they wanted to,” she said. “They had no choice.”
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Fortson’s family, said the sheriff’s statement confirmed what the family has said from Day One: that Roger Fortson was a patriot who had done nothing to cause his own death. Crump implored the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to act swiftly.
“We are still calling on the FDLE to bring criminal charges because this wasn’t mere negligence, this was criminal,” Crump said. “And he should be held accountable. He got a slap on the wrist. He still has his pension. He can go to another police department and get another job. He gets to go home and see his family. She has to go to the cemetery to see her baby. It isn’t fair.”
He said that if Duran is not criminally charged, it would be an affront to justice.
A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said its role is to investigate the deputy’s use of force and submit its investigative findings to the local state attorney’s office.
“Each investigation is thorough and unique and there is not a definitive timeline for completion,” the spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “Our investigation remains active until the prosecutorial review and their findings are completed.”
Body camera video, released a week after the shooting amid mounting pressure from Fortson’s supporters, showed a worker at the apartment complex direct Duran to Fortson’s home.
When Duran arrived outside Fortson’s door, he stood outside for 20 or so seconds. No voices could be heard on his body camera. He banged on the door but did not identify himself. He then moved to the side of the door. He knocked two more times, and announced himself both times. Fortson’s girlfriend has said neither of them heard the deputy announce that he was with the sheriff’s office.
Duran told investigators he felt he was going to be shot, and that his best course of action was to act first, not react, the internal affairs investigation says.
After Fortson collapses, the footage shows, Duran yells, “Drop the gun!”
Crump said Duran could have done a number of things differently to spare Fortson’s life, including waiting for backup or ordering him to drop his weapon before he shot him.
Fortson’s family and their attorneys have insisted Duran went to the wrong apartment. According to 911 records, deputies had never been called to Fortson’s apartment previously, but had been called to a nearby unit several times in the previous year, including once for a domestic disturbance.
Crump questioned the pace of the criminal investigation and whether race was a factor. Fortson was Black. Duran listed himself as Hispanic on his voter registration.
“What many in our community ask, is, you know, if the roles were reversed, what would the charges be?” said Crump, who has represented the families of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. “If Roger was somebody else, what would the charges be? I mean, it’s inescapable not to ask yourself these questions.”
Chantemekki Fortson was more direct.
“If Roger was somebody else, we wouldn’t even be here,” she said.
