Around 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Roger Fortson, a 23-year-old airman in the US Air Force, was alone in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, when someone knocked on his door. Not long later, he passed away. Fortson reportedly questioned who was there during a FaceTime conversation with a lady, but no one responded. A few minutes later, there was a harder knock, according to the AP. Fortson peered through the peephole this time. According to human rights lawyer Ben Crump, who talked with the lady and provided an account of Fortson's killing on Wednesday, when he saw no one, he became concerned and proceeded to grab his lawfully possessed revolver. When deputies broke through the door and saw the pistol, they shot the airman six times as he made his way back to his living room. Northwest Florida Daily News says that he subsequently passed away in a hospital.
Fortson was stationed at the Special Operations Wing of Hurlburt Field, about five miles away, and deputies were responding to a disturbance complaint at the apartment complex, according to CBS News. However, the lady who was FaceTimeing with Fortson claims he did not bother anybody throughout the chat, and she speculates that the deputies could have gone to the incorrect apartment. While the inquiry is ongoing, the implicated deputy is on administrative leave. "We are demanding openness in the Roger A. Smith death investigation and the prompt delivery of bodycam footage to the family," states Crump, who has also worked on cases involving the police shootings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. "His family and the public deserve to know what occurred in the moments leading up to this tragedy."
Fortson was stationed at the Special Operations Wing of Hurlburt Field, about five miles away, and deputies were responding to a disturbance complaint at the apartment complex, according to CBS News. However, the lady who was FaceTimeing with Fortson claims he did not bother anybody throughout the chat, and she speculates that the deputies could have gone to the incorrect apartment. While the inquiry is ongoing, the implicated deputy is on administrative leave. "We are demanding openness in the Roger A. Smith death investigation and the prompt delivery of bodycam footage to the family," states Crump, who has also worked on cases involving the police shootings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. "His family and the public deserve to know what occurred in the moments leading up to this tragedy."
