A special operations airman was fatally shot by police near an Air Force base in Florida on Friday.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was fatally shot during “an incident at his off-base residence” around 4:30 p.m. local time.
According to military.com, the unnamed deputy “made contact with an armed individual” at an off-base apartment.
The deputy killed Fortson following a call of a “disturbance in progress,” the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The officer opened fire after he “encountered a 23-year-old man armed with a gun and after the deputy had identified himself as law enforcement,” the statement read.
“Hearing sounds of a disturbance, [the deputy] reacted in self-defense,” the sheriff’s office said.
While the police view the incident as self-defense, civil rights attorney Ben Crump claims the shooting was excessive use of force.
Crump says a witness who was on a FaceTime call with Fortson said the airman was inside his apartment when he heard a knock at the door.
Fortson asked, “Who is it?” and failed to get a response, Crump said in a news release Wednesday.
A few minutes later, Fortson heard an “aggressive” knock, but didn’t see anyone when he looked out his peephole.
Crump claims Fortson retrieved his legally owned gun because he feared for his safety. As Fortson returned to the living room, the witness said, deputies “burst through his door.” When deputies saw the gun, they shot Fortson six times.
“The circumstances surrounding Roger’s death raise serious questions that demand immediate answers from authorities, especially considering the alarming witness statement that the police entered the wrong apartment,” Crump said in his statement on Wednesday.
“We are calling for transparency in the investigation into Roger’s death and the immediate release of body cam video to the family. His family and the public deserve to know what occurred in the moments leading up to this tragedy,” Crump said.
