Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is demanding immediate charges against the former Florida sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot U.S. Senior Airman Roger Fortson.
Speaking at Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida on Friday, Crump criticized the delay in charging former Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Eddie Duran, who shot Fortson six times on May 3.
“You got the video, what more do you need?” Crump said. “Normally for Black people in America, when they delay, delay, delay, that’s them trying to sweep it under the rug.”
Fortson was fatally shot six times on May 3 by Eddie Duran who allegedly responded to the wrong apartment for a disturbance call. Okaloosa Sheriff’s officials dispute this claim and provided a different narrative of how the shooting unfolded.
Crump previously said he does “fully anticipate” charges to be filed against Duran. On Friday, he reiterated that call alongside Fortson’s family with hope that a charge is truly filed by next Aug. 23.
“I can’t believe that they’ve been waiting three months to make the charges against this officer, but yet here we are,” Crump said Friday. “Don’t let them get away…Mark your calendars, brothers and sisters.”
Even still, Crump previously said there is a chance, if history repeats itself, that Duran would be able to move on to a different police department.
Fortson’s sister, Raven, spoke at the press conference on Friday, demanding justice for her younger brother. She said she was worried Duran would “take someone else’s family member” in the future if he is not held accountable.
“He spent his career, his life, protecting his country. He deserves to be honored and protected like he protected us,” she said. “Why is it taking this long? It shouldn’t be taking this long. My brother was murdered. He killed him for existing.”
Fortson’s parents also begged that the State Attorney “please do the right thing.”
“My child saved America in a split second,” Fortson’s mother, Chantemekki, said. “Look how long it’s taking to save him.”
Newsweek reached out to State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden and did not hear back immediately.
The civil rights attorney’s call for justice comes two weeks after Forston’s younger brother Andre was fatally shot in an apartment complex in Atlanta.
Andre Fortson was an innocent bystander on Tuesday and left bleeding in a breezeway at the Summit Hill Apartments on Bouldercrest Road, according to what neighbors told local news outlets. Police were called to the scene around 9:45 p.m. One neighbor told Action News that they heard people say “Andre, stay with us.”
What happened to Roger Fortson?
A deputy responding to a disturbance call “reacted in self-defense after he encountered a 23-year-old man armed with a gun,” the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Fortson, who was originally from Atlanta, was at his off-base apartment on Racetrack Road when the shooting happened around 4:30 p.m. Fortson was taken to the hospital, where he died.
In bodycam video, the deputy is seen in the apartment complex on Racetrack Road asking, “What’s going on.”
The deputy asked if a “fight is going on or something.” He meets with a woman who said fighting happens “frequently but this time it was sounding like it was getting out of hand.”
When the officer asked what door, the woman said, “I’m not sure.” She later says apartment 1401 – which was Fortson’s apartment number.
Crump played the police radio audio for the audience at a press conference. The dispatch officer was not able to provide information beyond that the incident involved a male and female.
“They said it was a domestic dispute between a male and a female, so they had to have had the wrong apartment,” Crump said at Fortson’s funeral. “If he can’t be safe in his own home, where can he be safe then?”
Sheriff’s records show another unit in the apartment complex, 1412, has had repeated domestic calls, several welfare checks and an EMS call for a “hemorrhage,” as reported by the Miami Herald. Deputies were called to the 1412 apartment 10 times since August 2023.
“Roger Fortson, a dedicated airman, was tragically taken from his loved ones while holding a legally owned firearm pointed at the ground, posing no threat to anyone,” Crump said Thursday. “The body camera footage and internal affairs investigation clearly demonstrate that the deputy’s use of deadly force was neither necessary nor justified.”
Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden called Crump’s claims that the deputy entered the wrong apartment false.
“We will never let them stain the reputation of Roger Fortson, not today, not tomorrow, not forever,” Crump said Friday. “We will remember him as the true American patriot that he was.”
While the officer was entering Fortson’s apartment complex, Fortson was on Facetime with his girlfriend and alone. Fortson had grabbed his gun, which he legally owned, when he heard banging at his door.
Chantemekki said he was holding the gun in his un-dominant hand, showing he was not going to shoot at the officer.
“He served America until his last breath,” she said Friday.
After a barrage of bullets, Fortson hits the ground and was eventually taken to a local hospital, where he died.
“It’s on video. There’s no mystery of what happened,” Crump said at Friday’s press conference. “The Second Amendment applies to Black people too…He did everything right, followed commands. It was the officer that didn’t follow his training.
Fortson’s dog, Chloe, was with Fortson in his apartment and witnessed the shooting.
Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla., according to the Air Force. He entered active duty on Nov. 19, 2019.
He was a combat veteran, taking part in a special operations mission in Syria. Fortson was awarded the Air Medal with a Combat Device in 2023.
“This tragic incident should never have occurred, and we must ensure that there are consequences for such reckless actions. Roger Fortson’s family deserves justice, and our community deserves accountability,” Crump said. “It is imperative that law enforcement officers who abuse their power are held responsible – how else can we expect to prevent future tragedies and rebuild trust within our communities?”
Who is Eddie Duran?
Duran, who lives in Shalimar, Florida, served in the U.S. Army from 2003 to 2014, which included a combat deployment to Iraq in 2008, Cpt. Robert Wagner wrote in the office’s investigation. He started in military intelligence and then moved to military law enforcement in 2007.
Following Duran’s honorable discharge, he started his civilian law enforcement career in Oklahoma. He worked as a police officer and K9 officer from 2015 to 2019.
For a period, however, in 2016 through early 2017, Duran was a fire marshal for the Altus Fire Department. In 2019 he had accepted a position as a sergeant for the civilian law enforcement police department on the Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma.
Duran was first employed by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in July 2019. He resigned in November 2021 to “follow his spouse (Ashley), who had a career opportunity outside of Florida,” according to the investigation. When wife’s career returned to the state, Duran returned to the department in June 2023.
He was reportedly “current” on response to resistance training, having last completed it on June 28, 2023. The training is meant to teach officers how to respond to situations when an individual is using violence or resisting arrest, according to the Florida Sheriffs Association.
“Direct to threat to me entails when we are aware of violent crime taking place that it is our responsibility to go forth, go forward without hesitation and ensuring that the threat is either eliminated or stopped,” Duran told Wagner in the investigation.
Duran was also current with his agency firearm qualification, according to the investigation. He last completed the training on June 8, 2023 with iron sights and again on Sept. 7, 2023 with the pistol mounted optic sight.
“Hesitation can lead to more violent offenses,” Duran said during the investigation. “The whole purpose is to stop the violent offenses.”
The administrative investigation determined Deputy Eddie Duran used “deadly force” that was not “reasonable” and “violated agency policy.” He was fired in June.
“While we understand that these things take time, the family is concerned with the length of time that this has taken, especially with the fact that that the shooting is on video,” Crump said Friday.
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.
