Deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida apartment complex burst into the wrong unit and fatally shot a Black U.S. Air Force airman who was home alone when they saw he had a gun, said an attorney for the man’s family. Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when the shooting happened on May 3, the Associated Press reports. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Fortson was on a Facetime call with a woman at the time of the encounter.
Crump said the woman reported that Fortson was alone in his apartment when he heard a knock at the door. He asked who was there but didn’t get a response. A few minutes later, Fortson heard a louder knock but didn’t see anyone when he looked through the peephole. The woman said Fortson was concerned and went to retrieve his gun, which Crump said was legally owned. As Fortson walked back through his living room, deputies burst through the door, saw that Fortson was armed and shot him six times, Crump said. The woman said Fortson was on the ground, saying, “I can’t breathe,” after he was shot. The deputy involved in the shooting was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. The woman said Fortson wasn’t causing a disturbance during their Facetime call and believes that the deputies must have had the wrong apartment.
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