FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — A well-known civil rights lawyer, Ben Crump, says he will sue a former Florida sheriff’s deputy and others for the shooting death of U.S. Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, in May 2024.
Eddie Duran, a former deputy sheriff for Okaloosa County, shot and killed Fortson at the door of his apartment. Fortson was black. Duran has said he is not guilty of killing. That criminal case is still going on.
Crump is going to hold a news conference in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on Tuesday afternoon with members of the Fortson family to talk about the case.
In his case, Crump says he will say that Duran shot the man with “excessive and unconstitutional deadly force.” It will also talk about what it calls problems with training and oversight at the sheriff’s office. Finally, it will say that the apartment complex where Fortson was shot gave “misleading, unverified information” that caused the violence.
What happened when the gun was fired?
The police say Duran was sent to Fortson’s flat in Fort Walton Beach in reaction to a report of a domestic disturbance that turned out to be false. Fortson opened the door while holding his gun at his side and pointing it down after knocking several times. The police say Duran shot Fortson several times before telling him to put down the gun.
What does Eddie Duran do?
Duran, who is 39 years old, started out as a police officer in the Army as a military police officer. After he got out of the military in 2015, he was hired by the Oklahoma police force. His first job as sheriff of Okaloosa County was in 2019, but he quit after two years. He then went back to work as sheriff in 2023.
Duran was fired by Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden after Fortson’s death because an internal review found that Duran’s life was not in danger when he opened fire.
Hispanic is what Duran says he is when he registers to vote.
What did Roger Fortson do?
Forston grew up in Atlanta. He finished from high school in 2019 and joined the Air Force that same year.
The apartment block where Fortson lived is about 13 kilometres (8 miles) away from Hurlburt Field. The 4th Special Operations Squadron put him in charge of special tasks, and one of his jobs was to load 30 mm and 105 mm weapons into a gunship.
Police are killing more and more Black people in their own homes, and this man was one of them. It also brought up the “stand your ground” rule in Florida again.