Florida deputy charged with shooting pilot Roger Fortson

A former Florida deputy involved in the fatal shooting of U.S. soldier Roger Fortson has been charged with manslaughter. State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden announced the charges against Eddie Lee Duran Jr. on Friday (August 23). He faces up to 30 years in prison.

Attorney Ben Crump and the pilot's family hope the charges will lead to a just resolution. “This should serve as a reminder to all law enforcement officers everywhere that they have sworn a solemn oath to protect and defend, and that their actions have consequences, especially when they result in the loss of life,” they said in a joint statement.

According to the prosecutor, a warrant has been issued for Duran's arrest. Fortson, 23, was shot six times in the doorway of his Fort Walton Beach apartment on May 3. The deputy had been called to a possible domestic dispute after neighbors reported hearing loud arguing coming from a unit. A resident told Duran that the noise was coming from the active-duty senior airman's apartment. He had only come home 30 minutes earlier, had a FaceTime call with his girlfriend and was not causing a disturbance.

The deputy knocked on the door and yelled, “Sheriff's office, open the door!” Bodycam footage of the incident showed that when Fortson complied with the command, he was holding a gun in his right hand. However, the gun remained pointed at the ground. Within seconds, Duran ordered the young man to step back and then fired his service weapon. As he lay injured on the ground taking his last breaths, the pilot attempted to obey the command and drop his gun, telling Duran, “It's over there. I don't have it.” Shortly afterward, he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The sheriff's office announced Duran's firing on May 31 after he was suspended pending the completion of an internal investigation into the shooting. The administration concluded that the use of deadly force “was objectively not appropriate and therefore violated agency policy.” In addition, the report states, “The former deputy confirmed that Mr. Fortson did not physically resist him in any way, and the investigation concluded that Mr. Fortson pointed the weapon in the direction of the former deputy.”

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said the fatal shooting should not have occurred. “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 airman and human being,” Aden said in a released statement. In addition, he stated that as a public safety administrator, Duran “failed to meet the standard of objective reasonableness and his use of control in retaliation was excessive.”

The funeral for the young man took place on May 17 in Stonecrest, a suburb of Atlanta, in the presence of family, friends and hundreds of Air Force members.