Fired Florida deputy who killed Roger Fortson charged with manslaughter

A now-fired Florida sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a high-ranking Air Force officer in his home in May has been charged with manslaughter, authorities said Friday.

Eddie Duran, a former employee of the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, shot Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson multiple times on May 3 after he opened the door to his Fort Walton Beach apartment. Fortson held a gun in his right hand pointed directly at the ground, body camera video shows. Duran was responding to a call from a resident of the apartment complex about a domestic disturbance.

Fortson, 23, was home alone, video calling his girlfriend with his dog. Fortson was black. Duran registered to vote as Hispanic.

At a press conference last week, Roger Fortson's parents called on District Attorney Ginger Bowden to file charges against Duran.

“I hope this leads to a change and shows others that you can't just kill people,” his mother Chantemekki Fortson said on Friday after learning of the charges. “Because he should have waited for backup and investigated a little more thoroughly.”

Still, she said, the news “doesn't bring me peace. It still hurts.”

Duran joined the sheriff's office in 2019 and resigned in November 2021. He returned in June 2023.

On May 31, nearly a month after Fortson's murder, Sheriff Eric Aden announced that Duran had been fired following an internal administrative investigation.

“The objective facts of the administrative investigation established that Mr. Fortson did not make any hostile attack movements and therefore the former deputy's use of deadly force was objectively not appropriate under Sheriff's Office policy,” Aden said, adding, “This tragic incident should never have happened.”

Aden said Fortson committed no crime. “By all accounts, he was an exceptional pilot and human being,” Aden said.

Fortson and her lawyers said Duran's firing was just a first step toward accountability. Days after the firing was announced, they implored authorities to act quickly and charge Duran.

Fortson's 16-year-old son Andre was killed in a shooting in the Atlanta area in late July. Andre Fortson was found shot to death in the alleyway of an apartment complex, authorities said. Two groups of people had shot at each other, DeKalb County police said.

The Fortson family originates from DeKalb County.

Roger Fortson was stationed at the Air Force's Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle.