Lawyer and Family of U.S. Air Force Airman Killed by Florida Deputy Demand That He Face Charges

By JEFF MARTIN

4:11 PM EDT, August 16, 2024

More than three months after a U.S. Air Force airman was gunned down by a Florida sheriff’s deputy, his family and their lawyer are demanding that prosecutors decide whether to bring charges against the former lawman.

At a Friday news conference, civil rights attorney Ben Crump questioned why the investigation has taken so long, noting that the shooting of Senior Airman Roger Fortson was captured on the deputy’s body camera video.

He said that “for Black people in America, when they delay, delay, delay, that tells us they’re trying to sweep it under the rug.”

“It’s on video y’all,” Crump added. “It ain’t no mystery what happened.”

Fortson, 23, was killed on May 3 by Okaloosa County sheriff’s Deputy Eddie Duran in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The airman answered the door to his apartment while holding a handgun pointed toward the floor and was killed within seconds, body camera video showed.

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden fired Duran, saying his life was never in danger and that he should not have fired his weapon.

A sheriff’s office internal affairs investigation found that Fortson “did not make any hostile, attacking movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable.”

On Friday, Crump said his team has been told that authorities will make a decision on charges on Aug. 23.

“Mark your calendars, brothers and sisters, mark your calendars,” Crump told supporters gathered for the news conference in a church sanctuary in Fort Walton Beach.

The Aug. 23 date came from a top official in the state attorney’s office, Crump said. Neither State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden, who oversees the area, or her staff responded to requests for comment on Friday.

Fortson, who was from metro Atlanta, was stationed at the Air Force’s Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle. At his funeral outside Atlanta in May, hundreds of Air Force members in dress blues filed past his coffin, draped with an American flag.

Now, Crump and the family want the former deputy to face charges.

“To the state’s attorney, you got everything you need,” Crump said. “The only question is, are you going to do it?”