Parents of a pilot killed in his home by a deputy sheriff fear he will not be charged

Pain is the only thing that drives Chantemekki Fortson at the moment.

Two months after her son was shot while standing in his own doorway, she is still filled with pain as what she believed to be a crystal clear murder case remains unprosecuted.

“It’s not power, anywhere,” she said. “It’s pain. I want to make sure my baby is recognized and honored and his reputation is not damaged.”

An Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy killed 23-year-old Roger Fortson, a senior airman, on May 3 in an act the sheriff said “should never have happened.” The deputy, Eddie Duran, was fired nearly a month later, but he still hasn’t been charged, leaving Fortson’s parents to spend their days working and hoping for justice they fear may not come.

Chantemekki Fortson traveled at least three times from her home in Stonecrest, Georgia, to the Florida city where her son was stationed to attend press conferences and community events and to preserve his memory.

She is now determined to push through a national law that would abolish qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that often protects law enforcement officials from civil lawsuits.

“It would give me a glimmer of hope that no one else would have to be in my shoes,” she said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is conducting a criminal investigation, said Tuesday that its investigation is ongoing. The agency did not provide further details on the status of the investigation.

The fact that the investigation is still ongoing is, however, only a small consolation.

“If I had killed the police, I think I would already be on trial and everything else,” Roger Wilburn said Monday night in an interview, his first since his son’s murder. “I just don’t understand why it’s taking so long.”

Roger Fortson was home alone with his small dog, having a video call with his girlfriend, when Duran knocked on his door while responding to a domestic violence call. Fortson opened his door with a gun pointed at the ground. Duran shot him multiple times within seconds without ordering Fortson to disarm himself, body camera video shows.

Fortson’s family and their lawyers insist that Duran went to the wrong apartment based on instructions from a woman he met when he arrived at the crime scene.

There is no evidence that Fortson was involved in the disturbance that led the officer to the complex. 911 call records show that officers had never been called to his apartment before. However, those records showed that officers had been called to another apartment on the fourth floor nine times in the year before Roger Fortson’s murder.

“This tragic incident should never have happened,” Sheriff Eric Aden said May 31 at the conclusion of an internal investigation into the shooting. Aden said Fortson “committed no crime” and Duran’s use of force was inappropriate.

“By all accounts, he was an extraordinary pilot and human being,” Aden said, and Fortson’s parents knew that for a long time.

Chantemekki Fortson, 50, said she has been in therapy, sometimes several times a week, since her son’s murder.

“I have to go to therapy because I’ve distanced myself from my other children,” she said. “I went to therapy because I’m trying to reconnect with my children.”

“Right now I feel like I’m not worthy of love,” she added.

Her sleep is constantly interrupted by images of her son’s final moments, she said.

“The loss of my baby cannot be undone,” she said. “This void will never, ever be filled.”

Wilburn, 55, said he hopes the length of the criminal investigation is a sign that prosecutors will bring his son’s killer to justice.

“That’s what I’m praying for,” said Wilburn, who lives in California. And that if Duran is charged, “it won’t be hard to prove.”

Wilburn last spoke to his son on April 15, his 23rd birthday. Fortson had visited him in California about a week earlier. He recalled a “good conversation” about the next chapter in his son’s promising life, a chapter that Wilburn said is now complete. Wilburn was solemn as he reflected on the milestones that had been taken from him: He will never be able to fix his son’s bow tie before he walks down the aisle or share his joy at becoming a father.

“That was my firstborn son,” he said, recalling the joy he felt when Roger Fortson was born. “That really, really touched me. Our bond grew stronger and he just took all that away from me.”