The family of a 23-year-old Air Force airman who was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in Florida is calling for the release of body camera video

Lawyers for the family of an Air Force airman killed by a Florida sheriff’s deputy last week called on law enforcement officials Thursday to “correct the narrative” surrounding the 23-year-old’s death. They said he did nothing wrong before he was fatally shot.

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was shot late Friday afternoon by a deputy who was responding to a call about a disturbance in progress, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said. His girlfriend, who was on a FaceTime call with him throughout the encounter, said the deputy stormed into the wrong unit and fatally shot Fortson when he saw he was armed with a gun, Fortson’s mother and said their lawyers at a press conference. They said the friend, who did not attend the press conference, was distraught.

“He lost his life because they knocked on the wrong door. Mistakes happen. We know that,” said Brian Barr, one of the family’s lawyers. “People are not perfect. Good people make mistakes. But good people also own up to their mistakes.”

He said the sheriff’s office misled the public with its statement about the shooting.

“You go get it and read it. What makes you think? People think that this happened outside. That this boy was in the middle of a disturbance,” Barr said. “And he did something. He instigated this and lost his life in the process. That’s what it sounds like. It sounded justified. That’s what they tried to make it sound like.”

“We want to know what happened,” he continued. “We want the mistakes to be admitted. We will not disappear until this transparency is achieved.”

In its statement, the sheriff’s office said, “Our deputy responded to a call regarding a disturbance where he encountered an armed man. The deputy shot the man, who later died from his injuries.”

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is also representing Fortson’s family, said they planned to discuss the body camera video with members of the sheriff’s office later Thursday and he expects it to be released publicly afterward.

“They took a good guy with them. They took away a patriot from us,” he said. “The story then broke that an officer at that apartment complex killed a citizen in self-defense. They spread this narrative and demonize his name as if he did something wrong. I’m trying to justify an unjustified killing.”

“If you make a mistake, you own up to it. “You don’t try to justify killing a good guy,” Crump said. “The Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office, they must give him the dignity and respect he so richly deserves.”

Fortson’s mother, Chantimekki Fortson, held a framed photo of her son in his uniform. She said he had expressed a desire to join the Air Force since childhood and was living his dream. She described him as compassionate, intelligent, loving and respectful.

She implored the sheriff’s department to release more information about the encounter, saying she had “accepted my gift.”

“I need you to clean up his reputation,” Chantimekki Fortson said. “Tell the truth about my son. I know that my son has done nothing to harm you. Please cleanse my baby’s reputation.”

The sheriff’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

In one opinion On Wednesday, Crump called the sheriff’s office report “deeply disturbing” and said it incorrectly suggested Fortson posed a threat.

The sheriff’s office said the officer, who has not been publicly identified, heard “sounds of a disturbance” and “responded in self-defense” after hitting Fortson with a weapon and identifying himself as a police officer. But Fortson’s mother and her attorneys said Fortson was on the phone with his girlfriend on FaceTime throughout the encounter and was home alone when he heard a knock on his door. He asked, “Who is there?” but received no answer, Crump said in a statement Wednesday and at the news conference.

A few minutes later, according to the friend, there was a second aggressive knock. Crump said Thursday that Fortson did not see anyone when he looked through the peephole and it appeared as if someone was covering the peephole, citing the girlfriend. Fortson believed someone was trying to break into his apartment, Barr said. So he retrieved his gun, which his family’s lawyers said was legally owned. As he walked back through his living room, police officers burst through the door, saw Fortson was armed and shot him six times, according to the girlfriend’s statement. He was taken to a hospital where he later died, the sheriff’s office said.

The friend said she saw Fortson lying on the ground and saying, “I can’t breathe” after he was shot. She said she assumed police entered the wrong unit because there was no disturbance at Fortson’s apartment and he was home alone.

Chantimekki Fortson said her son’s friend called her while she was still having the FaceTime conversation. The grieving mother said her son was shot three times in the chest and three times in the left arm.

Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron. Hurlburt Field, the Air Force base where he was stationed, said in a statement that he assumed active duty on Nov. 19, 2019.

In a statement late Tuesday, Sheriff Eric Aden said he “immediately” placed the deputy on administrative leave and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an investigation, as policy requires. He said the Florida Attorney General’s Office would also conduct an independent review.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed it was investigating the shooting at the request of the sheriff’s office and declined further comment. The Florida Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Crump compared Fortson’s killing to the killing of Botham Jean, an unarmed Black man who was shot in 2018 by a white Dallas police officer who was off-duty and mistook his apartment for her own. Amber Guyger was convicted of murder the following year and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“You come to my apartment, shoot and kill me, and then you say it was self-defense?” Crump said. “How does that even make sense?”

Crump represented Jean’s family as well as the families of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, who were also killed by police.