Florida deputy who shot US pilot is fired after internal investigation

A deputy sheriff who shot a pilot from Florida in his apartment that occurred earlier this month was released, authorities said Friday.

Deputy Eddie Duran was “fired” following an internal affairs investigation, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The investigation found that Duran’s “use of deadly force” in shooting Senior Airman Roger Fortson “was objectively not appropriate and therefore violated agency policy,” the sheriff’s office said.

“The firing of the officer who shot Roger Fortson is a step forward, but it is not complete justice for Roger and his family. The actions of this deputy were not just negligent, they were criminal,” family attorney Ben Crump said in a statement Friday evening. “While the criminal investigation is ongoing, we expect charges will be filed against this officer. The video footage provides damning evidence that this was a brutal and senseless murder of a young man who was simply enjoying time alone with his dog while video chatting with his girlfriend.”

On May 3, 23-year-old Fortson was in his apartment in the city of Fort Walton Beach in the Florida Panhandle when he was fatally shot by Duran. Fortson was stationed in the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, about five miles from his home.

Sheriff’s investigators concluded that Duran was originally called to Fortson’s apartment complex for an “ongoing physical altercation,” the sheriff’s office said in its Friday news release.

The sheriff’s office says when Duran arrived at the complex, he was directed by a complex employee to Unit 1401, where the employee said “the disturbance occurred,” adding that “unreported disturbances have recently occurred in or around the same apartment,” the sheriff’s office reported.

However, a statement previously released by the family contradicts this account, claiming that Fortson was talking to his girlfriend via FaceTime before the shooting and that the deputy was sent to the wrong apartment.

Body camera video released by the sheriff’s office earlier this month shows a deputy knocking on Fortson’s apartment door and announcing he was from the sheriff’s office. When the door opens, the deputy yells at Fortson to step back.

In the bodycam video, the deputy initially knocks on the door without announcing himself. About 30 seconds later, he knocks again and says he is from the sheriff’s office and to open the door. About 10 seconds later, he knocks and answers. Just seconds after Fortson opens the door, the deputy shoots Fortson, who is holding what appears to be a gun at his side.

Crump had previously stated in a press conference that Fortson spoke to his girlfriend via FaceTime and went to get his legally purchased gun after hearing the knock on the door and not hearing who was there.

Crump’s company had also previously released a video of the FaceTime call, which apparently began after the shooting and shows the ceiling of Fortson’s apartment.

“I can’t breathe,” Fortson moans in the video.

Sheriff’s investigators claim that when Fortson opened the door, Duran saw Fortson “holding a firearm in his right hand,” but the gun was “pointed toward the ground with enough force that the former deputy could clearly see the back of the sight.”

Fortson “did not physically resist Duran in any way and the investigation revealed that Mr. Forston did not point the weapon in the direction of the former deputy,” the sheriff’s office said Friday.

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said in a statement Friday that “this tragic incident should never have happened. The objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate response to Mr. Fortson’s actions. Mr. Fortson committed no crime. By all accounts, he was an exceptional aviator and human being.”

— Alex Sundby contributed to this report.