A 23-year-old African-American airman, Roger Fortson, was accidentally killed in his home in Fort Walton Beach, in the Florida Panhandle, by an Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy while he was having a Facetime conversation with his girlfriend. The shocking images were filmed by the officer’s bodycam and published by the Florida police. The facts date back to last May 3rd. The deputy, Eric Aden, presented the video a few hours after the victim’s family and his lawyers held a press conference in which they disputed that the officer had acted in self-defense. Aden rejected claims by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Fortson’s family, that the deputy went to the wrong apartment, covered the door’s peephole and failed to announce himself. The video shows the deputy arriving at a Fort Walton Beach apartment building and speaking with a woman, who she says she heard an argument. The deputy then takes the elevator up and goes down an outside hallway. Then the deputy knocks and steps aside, apparently out of sight of the door. Twice he shouts, “Sheriff’s office! Open the door!”. Fortson opens the door and you see what appears to be a gun pointed at the floor. The deputy shouts, “Step back!” and fires shots. Then he shouts: “Drop the gun! “It’s over there,” Fortson says. “Drop the gun!” he shouts back at the deputy. “I don’t have it,” Fortson says, lying on the ground. The deputy then calls paramedics on the radio. The deputy was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
