US police officer enters wrong apartment and shoots dead black Air Force officer

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump called for a full investigation into the death.

Washington:

A black U.S. Air Force airman was shot and killed by “excessive” force by a Florida sheriff’s deputy who broke into the wrong apartment, an attorney hired by his family said Thursday.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented the families of other African American victims of police violence, called for a full investigation into the May 3 death of Roger Fortson.

Sheriff Eric Aden of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said the deputy was responding to reports of “unrest in progress” when the shooting occurred.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office releases bodycam footage of one of its officers shooting and killing Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson. 🤔 Looks like it could be a stage. THOUGHTS 💭? pic.twitter.com/2Ms4SO82mK

– BLACK FLAG 🏴 (@FlagBlack007) May 9, 2024

But Crump said at a news conference, “It wasn’t Roger’s apartment where there was unrest.”

“He was in his home, his sanctuary, his castle, where he was allowed to be, and they forced their way into his home,” Crump said, using “excessive” force.

Crump said Fortson, 23, was on FaceTime with his girlfriend, a nurse, when the shooting occurred.

She “heard everything,” starting with an “aggressive knock” on the door, he said.

“She talked about how he said ‘Who’s there’ and he didn’t hear a response,” Crump said, adding that Fortson looked through a peephole but didn’t see anyone.

“He went and picked up his legally registered gun,” Crump said, adding that he went back when the door opened.

“And then she said she just heard gunshots,” he said. “He was shot six times.”

Crump called for a transparent investigation to do “everything that suits a good man.”

In his statement, Aden said a deputy responded to “a call about an ongoing disturbance where he encountered an armed man.”

“The deputy shot the man, who later succumbed to his injuries,” Aden said, adding that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorney general’s office would launch an investigation.

The United States was rocked by protests in 2020 after the videotaped killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death sparked a reexamination of race relations and sparked calls for police reform.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)