The girlfriend of a U.S. Air Force airman who was shot and killed by a Florida sheriff’s deputy last week witnessed the shooting over FaceTime, an attorney for the airman’s family and his mother said Thursday. The deputy has been placed on administrative leave, and a state agency is investigating the shooting.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was on FaceTime with his girlfriend when he heard knocking on his door, saw no one through the peephole and got his gun, attorney Ben Crump said during a news conference. The deputy entered Fortson’s apartment, saw him with his gun and shot him, Crump said.
Fortson’s mother Chantemekki Fortson told reporters her son’s girlfriend was devastated from the shooting.
“She literally watched them walk over him as he was dying, taking his last breath,” Fortson said.
Crump didn’t identify the girlfriend but said she has an attorney.
“She was afraid that she just heard them and watch them kill her boyfriend,” Crump told reporters.
U.S. Air Force via AP
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in the Florida panhandle said in a statement Saturday the unidentified deputy was responding to a disturbance call, “made contact with an armed individual at an apartment” and acted in self-defense. In an updated statement Tuesday, Sheriff Eric Aden said the deputy “encountered an armed man” and shot him.
“All of us at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office are saddened about the fatal officer involved shooting over the weekend,” Aden said.
The family planned to view body camera footage from the shooting Thursday afternoon, Crump said. The family called for the bodycam footage to be released to the public and for the sheriff’s office to correct what they’ve said about the shooting.
“Do the right thing and correct this narrative,” Crump said. “Correct this narrative and don’t put a stain on the name of this young man … Do not try to put stain on his name, on his life, on his legacy.”