U.S. Airman Roger Fortson (left) in a U.S. Air Force photo, (right) civil rights lawyer Ben Crump (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
After the family of Roger Fortson demanded the release of body camera footage of a deputy fatally shooting the 23-year-old U.S. senior airman in his apartment, authorities complied, allowing the public to draw conclusions based on the video rather than the competing narratives of law enforcement and civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Here’s what we’ve learned.
Last Friday afternoon, Fortson was at home in his apartment in Fort Walton Beach when an unidentified deputy, now on leave and under state investigation, knocked on his front door in response to a disturbance call. While Crump said Wednesday that the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to the wrong apartment, noting that Fortson was alone at the time and talking to his girlfriend on FaceTime, Sheriff Eric Aden pushed back by saying the 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
Whether or not there was an actual disturbance in Fortson’s apartment, the video shows that deputy was told by a witness to go to apartment 1401 and that this was the number on the wall outside the door.
“1401” visible on the wall outside of Roger Fortson’s apartment.
The body cam video began with the deputy arriving at the apartment complex and meeting 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 appears to be heard saying 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 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. The shots were fired and Fortson fell to the ground in agony.
A still image of the moment Roger Fortson was fatally shot.
“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.
The above-described details gleaned from the video cut against statements that Crump has made about the shooting and against the way the sheriff’s office framed the incident as a shooting of an “armed man.”
For instance, in his statement this week, Crump said that authorities had the wrong apartment. If by that he meant there was no actual disturbance at Fortson’s, he may be correct, but the deputy did go to the door that the witness specified: 1401. Nor did the video show that the deputy “burst through the door,” as Crump’s firm described it. Fortson opened the door and was shot multiple times almost immediately after.
When the sheriff’s office released a statement on the shooting, however, Fortson was described as an “armed man.” The video showed that while Fortson did have a gun in hand when answering the door, it was not raised or pointing at the deputy. The weapon was pointing down at the floor. He was in his own home and, according to attorney Crump, legally owned the firearm.
Crump’s law firm argued that 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.
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden has since said that there’s reason to believe — other than two the announcements of the deputy’s presence — that Fortson was aware law enforcement was outside.
“Mr. Fortson’s comments indicate that he did acknowledge it was law enforcement at the door and he arrived at the door with a firearm in his hand,” Aden said, seemingly referring to part of the body cam video where the word “police” is heard amid otherwise inaudible muttering.
Crump, for his part, blasted the use of the term “armed man” for “falsely” suggesting that Fortson “posed a threat” simply because he legally possessed a firearm while answering the door.
At this point, whether Fortson was actually aware the person who knocked on the door was a deputy remains in dispute.
Fortson’s family has said that authorities must have responded to the “wrong apartment” because no one else was there at the time, so there couldn’t have been a disturbance. Instead, Fortson was on FaceTime with his girlfriend.
Crump separately shared video of Fortson’s girlfriend recording the FaceTime call after the shooting.
Roger Fortson’s girlfriend recorded on Facetime his encounter with Okaloosa County, Florida Sheriff’s Deputies. His girlfriend and her attorney have instructed us that we can release a portion of the Facetime video that was recorded at the time of this tragedy. pic.twitter.com/hvm7lStHb7
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) May 9, 2024
As Fortson lay dying on the floor, he said: “I can’t breathe.”
Moments later, when other deputies aggressively arrived on the shooting scene, the deputy who opened fire said, “We’re good, we’re good.”
“He had a gun as soon as he opened that door,” the deputy said.
Law enforcement could be heard demanding that anyone else in the apartment come out and make themselves known. No one did.
At least one deputy could be heard saying “clear.”
Aside from the answering whether the deputy reasonably used deadly force, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement appears likely to investigate whether Fortson’s apartment was the actual location of the reported disturbance. To do that, scrutinizing the person who called 911 and evaluating their basis for doing so seems to be a given.
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