The fatal shooting of a U.S. Air Force airman at his off-base apartment by a Florida sheriff’s deputy brings to mind other instances of Black people being killed by law enforcement in their own homes as they’re going about their day
The fatal shooting of a U.S. Air Force airman at his off-base apartment in the Florida Panhandle by a sheriff’s deputy brings to mind other instances of Black people being killed by law enforcement in their own homes as they’re going about their day.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was killed on May 3 in his apartment in Fort Walton Beach. Body camera video shown to reporters Thursday shows the deputy going to Fortson’s door after speaking to a woman who described hearing an argument.
Attorney Ben Crump, who has been hired by Fortson’s family, has said Fortson was talking to his girlfriend on FaceTime when the deputy arrived. Crump said Fortson grabbed his gun because he heard someone outside his apartment, got no response when he asked who was there and discovered the peephole on his door was blocked.
On the body camera video, the deputy can be heard yelling that he was from the sheriff’s department and knocking, while also stepping seemingly out of view of the door. The video then shows Fortson opening the door with what appears to be a gun in his hand pointed toward the ground.
The deputy quickly fires several shots, yelling for Fortson to drop the gun after he is already on the ground wounded.
Here are some other cases:
Botham Jean, an 26-year-old Black man, was fatally shot in 2018 by a white police officer who mistook his Dallas apartment for her own.
Amber Guyger was still in uniform after a long shift when she walked up to Jean’s apartment — which was on the fourth floor, directly above hers on the third — and found the door unlocked.
