Questions and sadness hang on the apartment door where a police officer killed a US airman

WASHINGTON | At the apartment door where a Florida deputy shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson, a small shrine grows with the tributes of the Air Force unit grappling with his loss.

There is a long wooden board with two sets of aviator wings attached and a black marker where mourners can leave prayers and memories for the 23-year-old.

A visitor left an open Stella Artois beer. Others left combat boots, bouquets of flowers and an American flag. On each side of the door are grenades made from 105mm and 30mm cartridges, like the ones Fortson handled as a gunner in the unit’s AC-130J special aircraft – the empty 105mm cartridge is filled with flowers.

Then there is the neighborhood.

In military tradition, if a comrade was there at the time of death, the quarters are left quietly and often anonymously.

The 1st Special Operations Wing in the Florida Panhandle, where Fortson served, took time away from its normal duties Monday to process his death and “focus members’ attention inward, using small group discussions, agreeing to be heard.” and get in touch with teammates.” Wing said in a statement.

A heated debate has erupted in several online forums in the week since Fortson was shot: Did the police have the right apartment? A caller reported a domestic disturbance, but Fortson was alone. Why would the deputy fire so quickly? Why would the police kill a military member?

There are also questions about whether race played a role because Fortson is black, and echoes of the police killing of George Floyd.

Fortson had his legal weapon in his hand when he opened his front door, but it was pointed at the ground. Based on body camera footage released by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, the deputy only ordered Fortson to drop the weapon after he shot him. The sheriff did not release the deputy’s race.

“We know our air commandos are noticing the growing media coverage and are having conversations about what happened,” Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, head of Air Force Special Operations Command, said in a message to troop leaders last week.

He urged those leaders to listen and seek to understand their troops: “We have grieving teammates with different backgrounds.”

In 2020, after Floyd’s death, then-Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Kaleth O. Wright wrote an emotional message to his troops about police killings of Black men and children: “I am a Black man who happens to be the Chief Master Air Force sergeant. I’m George Floyd… I’m Philando Castile, I’m Michael Brown, I’m Alton Sterling, I’m Tamir Rice.”

At the time, Wright was among a handful of black military leaders, including now-chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who said they needed to address the killing and its implications.

“My biggest fear is not that I will be killed by a white police officer (believe me, my heart starts racing like most other black men in America when I see those blue lights behind me) … but that I will be with a report “One of our black airmen has died at the hands of a white police officer,” Wright wrote at the time.

Wright, now retired, posted a photo on his personal Facebook page Thursday showing Fortson standing in matching flight suits with his little sister.

“Who am I… I’m SrA Roger Fortson,” Wright posted. “This is what I always feared. Pray for his family. RIH young king.”

On Friday, many of Fortson’s unit will travel to Georgia to attend his funeral, with a flyover by Special Operations AC-130s planned.

“You were taken too soon,” another senior airman wrote on the wooden board on Fortson’s front door. “No justice, no peace.”

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