Left: Former deputy Eddie Duran (Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office). Center: U.S. Airman Roger Fortson pictured just before he was fatally shot (Ben Crump). Right: Fortson in uniform (U.S. Air Force).
The Florida deputy who was fired after an internal affairs probe about the fatal shooting 23-year-old Roger Fortson, which unfolded just moments after the U.S. senior airman opened his apartment door on May 3, now faces a manslaughter case.
Prosecutors in the First Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office revealed Friday that former Okaloosa County deputy Eddie Lee Duran, 38, was charged with manslaughter with a firearm in Fortson’s death, a count that could put the defendant behind bars for up to 30 years if convicted.
On the day of the shooting, Fortson was at home in his apartment in Fort Walton Beach when Duran knocked on his front door in response to a disturbance call. After the shooting, Fortson family civil rights attorney Ben Crump said that Duran went to the wrong apartment, saying that Fortson was alone at the time and talking to his girlfriend on FaceTime. Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden responded by saying that the then deputy “knocked on the correct door.”
Bodycam of #RogerFortson fatal police death. In the four-and-a-half minute, heavily redacted video, it is very troubling that the deputy shot multiple times within a split second of the door being opened, killing Roger. pic.twitter.com/ZngLhwsxX8
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) May 9, 2024
Bodycam of the incident showed that Duran was told by a witness to go to apartment 1401 and that this was the number on the wall outside Fortson’s door.
1401 visible on the wall outside of Roger Fortson’s apartment.
Duran arrived at the apartment complex that day and met a woman in a parking lot who said that it “sounded like something was getting out of hand” in apartment 1401. The woman said that two weeks earlier she was walking by and heard someone yelling “shut the f— up,” among other things, like the “B-word,” but she wasn’t sure where the shouting came from exactly.
At the elevator, the woman told the deputy that she now knew the apartment to be 1401. She told the deputy to take the elevator to the fourth floor. Once off the elevator, the deputy approached Fortson’s apartment. He stood at the door listening for roughly 15 to 18 seconds before knocking on the door. He did not announce himself as law enforcement at this time, but instead stood to the right of the door out of view of the peephole.
A few moments later, Fortson appeared to say something about “police.” That’s when the deputy knocked on the door a second time and announced himself for the first time as a member of the sheriff’s office. The deputy knocked on the door a third time, again saying, “Sheriff’s office open the door.” The deputy appeared to remain largely out of view of the peephole until Fortson opened the door.
In a split-second, you can hear the deputy say “step back” and then shoot Fortson six times.
The video showed that while Fortson did have a gun in his right hand, a gun Crump said was “legally-owned,” he did not raise the weapon, but instead raised his empty left hand. Then the shots were fired, and Fortson fell to the ground.
Roger Fortson pictured with left hand in the air and gun in right hand pointed down.
“Drop the gun,” the deputy yelled repeatedly.
“It’s over there,” Fortson said. “I don’t have it.”
“Suspect down,” the deputy then told dispatch, calling for EMS.
As Fortson lay dying on the floor, he said: “I can’t breathe.”
After the sheriff’s office released a statement on the shooting, describing Fortson as an “armed man,” Crump pushed back by saying the airman did what any other concerned “law-abiding citizen” would do after hearing a knock on the door and not seeing someone there through the peephole. Crump also called the shooting an “execution” and a violation of Fortson’s constitutional rights.
In the aftermath, an internal affairs probe led to Duran’s firing from the sheriff’s office on the ground that his use of deadly force “was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy” since Fortson did not point the gun at the deputy and “did not physically resist him in any way[.]”
After news of the manslaughter case Friday, the sheriff’s office said it stood by its decision to fire Duran for a “not objectively reasonable” use of deadly force.
“We continue to wish Mr. Fortson’s family comfort and peace, as the former deputy’s criminal case proceeds,” a statement said, adding that the sheriff’s office has been “fully accountable and transparent in its compliance with statutory requirements, providing numerous public statements, making accessible the available body-worn camera footage and other related records, meeting with Mr. Forston’s family and legal counsel, and communicating openly with the U.S. Air Force and our community at-large.”
Also on Friday, attorney Crump said the manslaughter charge was the “first step towards justice for the family of Roger Fortson.”
“Nothing can ever bring Roger back, and our fight is far from over, but we are hopeful that this arrest and these charges will result in real justice for the Fortson family,” he said in a statement. “Let this be a reminder to law enforcement officers everywhere that they swore a solemn oath to protect and defend, and their actions have consequences, especially when it results in the loss of life.”
It’s unclear if Duran has an attorney at this time. Prosecutors said a warrant would be issued for his arrest.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
