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You may have read last week that a young Air Force man, Roger Fortson, assigned to the 4th Special Operatons Squadron at Florida’s Hulrburt Field was shot by police after a domestic disturbance call was placed.<\/p>\n
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office was responding to a disturbance between a man and woman in the apartment building, and deputies shot Fortson, who was Black, multiple times in the chest, according to police radio communications.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Normally I would write this off as a FAFO story – don’t smack the girl around, don’t have to take the consequences. But this one has some disturbing aspects.<\/p>\n
“The circumstances surrounding Roger’s death raise serious questions that demand immediate answers from authorities, especially considering the alarming witness statement that the police entered the wrong apartment,” Crump said. “The narrative released by law enforcement, which falsely suggests that Roger posed a threat, is deeply troubling and inconsistent with the details provided by that witness: Roger was home alone, causing no disturbance, when his life was tragically cut short by law enforcement.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Turns out the young airman was alone in his apartment, on a video call with his girlfriend. So no disturbance, no he\/she dispute… and her story (she is the witness cited below) is pretty damning.<\/p>\n
Fortson, according to the witness, asked, “Who is it?” But he didn’t receive an answer. After a subsequent “aggressive” second knock and seeing no one through the peephole, Fortson grabbed his legally owned gun, Crump detailed.<\/p>\n
As Fortson was walking back to his living room, police entered the apartment and shot him.<\/p>\n
“Don’t have anything further than a male and female; it’s all fourth party information from the front desk at the leasing office,” a deputy said on the radio.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, another deputy called in to report “shots fired, suspect down,” and called for emergency medical services.<\/p>\n
“Multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, Black male,” another deputy chimes in shortly after. Fortson was shot six times, Crump said in his statement.Military.com<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, Crump is an Al-Sharpton style lawyer who has been involved in many high-profile cases (Trayvon Martin and George Floyd, among others), and in this case he is playing a bit fast and loose with the facts – police video says the sheriff identified himself clearly twice and\u00a0 Fortson acknowledged. However, the video also shows Fortson turning away to walk into his apartment after answering the door. The sheriff’s office says the address was correct. So not everything is as described.<\/p>\n
\nThe deputy takes the elevator to the fourth floor and knocks on a door three times. The\u00a0apartment\u00a0number \u201c1401\u201d is visible in the footage. He announces himself twice, saying, \u201cSheriff\u2019s office, open the door.\u201d\u00a0There is nothing heard on the footage from inside the apartment. (Emphasis added – ed.)
\n<\/em><\/p>\nWithin seconds of the apartment\u2019s door opening, the deputy says \u201cstep back\u201d and is then seen firing his weapon. Fortson is seen standing at the door with his hands down and what appears to be a lowered firearm in his right hand. He immediately falls to the floor as the deputy fires. At least five shots are heard.\u00a0 CNN<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This is a tough one. I understand the mentality that says “Gun!!Shoot!” but there also has to be a threat, and I am not seeing that. Not a fan of Crump’s by any means but he may indeed be the blind pig who has found an acorn this time. Did the deputy do ‘black man-gun-assumed threat’ in his head?\u00a0 All I know, is that at this point this does not appear to be a 100% good shoot, and it has cost us the life of a presumably motivated and trained service member. Hope someone\u00a0 knows more about this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"