FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The mother of a U.S. Air Force airman shot and killed by a Florida sheriff’s deputy nearly two years ago says she doesn’t want people to forget about her son and is still seeking accountability so it doesn’t happen to someone else.<\/p>\n
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was shot to death by a deputy responding to a disturbance call at Fortson’s apartment in Fort Walton Beach, where he lived while based at nearby Hurlburt Field. The May 2024 encounter was captured on body camera video.<\/p>\n
At a Tuesday news conference in Florida, prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Fortson’s family in an ongoing federal lawsuit, said it was his mother’s decision to hold the media briefing.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is deeply hurt and concerned that time has allowed her son\u2019s name and his life to fade from public consciousness,\u201d Crump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not here to litigate facts or comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” he added. “We are here because silence, delay and distance have a human cost for families who are left to grieve while waiting for answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden fired Deputy Eddie Duran, 38, who fatally shot Fortson after being directed to Fortson’s apartment while responding to a domestic violence call. Duran was charged with manslaughter with a firearm, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. It’s a rarely seen criminal case filed against a Florida law officer.<\/p>\n
Two Florida attorneys representing Duran did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Fortson\u2019s mother, Chantimekki Fortson, said she still has many unanswered questions about the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to know what happened to my baby,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to try to learn how to live life without Roger,\u201d she added. “I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to ever learn that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crump added that Fortson’s mother wants to know: “How could it have been prevented and how can we make sure that it doesn\u2019t happen to anyone else\u2019s family?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fortson’s family is from Georgia. Hundreds of Air Force members in dress blues mourned Fortson at his funeral outside Atlanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The mother of a U.S. Air Force airman shot and killed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44717,25124,2205,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-150743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ap-race-and-ethnicity","tag-ap-u-s-news","tag-associated-press","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}