Mom of Airman Roger Fortson sobs as she reveals his final words before he was shot dead by cop while opening front door
THE last words said by a US airman before being fatally shot by a police officer have been revealed by his heartbroken mother who called his death unjustifiable.
US Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was shot in his apartment when officers responded to a call about a disturbance on May 3.
Body camera footage shows an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputy entering an elevator before walking down an outdoor hallway of an apartment building in Fort Walton Beach, Florida – about 160 miles west of Tallahassee.
The deputy is then seen banging on a door and stepping to the side shouting, “Sheriff’s office! Open the door!”
Fortson opens the door and is seen holding what seemed to be a handgun that was pointed down to the floor.
“Step back!” the deputy shouted, firing shots before telling Fortson to “drop the gun! Drop the gun!”
Fortson, lying on the floor, told the deputy where the gun was, saying that he didn’t have it when the deputy asked him to drop the gun again.
“I don’t have it,” Fortson said before the deputy called the paramedics.
Fortson was talking to his girlfriend on FaceTime at the time and grabbed his gun after hearing someone outside his apartment.
“The girlfriend acknowledges that even though she initially thought the door was forced open by the police that she stands by her emotional recollection of what happened,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family.
A clip from the FaceTime video taken on Fortson’s phone shows him groaning and saying, “I can’t breathe.”
A deputy is heard yelling at him to “stop moving!”
The deputy has since been placed on administrative leave as the investigation continues.
Fortson’s mother, Chantemekki Fortson, held a framed portrait of her son during a press conference on Thursday.
“My baby was shot up,” she said in tears.
“My child taught us how to love. How to forgive.”
“So, to this sheriff’s department that took my gift that had so many accolades inside of him. To air is human, and to forgive is divine.
“I need you guys to tell the truth about my son. I need you to get his reputation right.”
Chantemekki Fortson described her son’s girlfriend hearing the shooting.
“She literally watched them walk over him as he was dying, taking his last breath.”
Crump claims the deputy went to the wrong apartment and did not announce himself.
“We remain adamant that the police had the wrong apartment as Roger was on the phone with his girlfriend for a substantial amount of time leading up to the shooting, and no one else was in the apartment,” Crump said in a statement.
The phone is pointed at the ceiling so the footage doesn’t show what is happening in the apartment.
I need you guys to tell the truth about my son. I need you to get his reputation right.
Chantemekki Fortson
INVESTIGATION CONTINUES
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden rejected the claims made by Crump but extended condolences to Fortson’s family.
“This result is one we never hope to encounter,” said Aden.
“These investigations take time, but I want to assure you that we are not hiding or attempting to cover anything up.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.
Sheriff Aden said the probe was being handled as a criminal investigation and no determination had been made on whether the deputy’s actions were justified or not.
However, an initial news release from the sheriff’s office described the shooting as the deputy reacting “in self-defense after he encountered a 23-year-old man armed with a gun.”
Crump described Fortson as a “patriot.”
“For whatever reason, they thought he was a bad guy, but he was a good guy. He was a great guy. He was an exceptional guy,” he said.
“They took a patriot from us.”
Fortson enlisted in the Air Force after graduation from high school and was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field.
At the time of the shooting, Fortson lived just five miles from the base.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Crump and the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office for comment.