Lawyer and family of U.S. Air Force airman killed by Florida lawmaker want him charged

More than three months after a U.S. Air Force airman was shot and killed by a Florida sheriff’s deputy, his family and their attorney are asking prosecutors to decide whether to charge the former lawman.

At a news conference Friday, civil rights attorney Ben Crump questioned why the investigation took so long, noting that the shooting of Senior Airman Roger Fortson was captured on the deputy’s body camera video.

He said that “for black people in America, when it’s late, late, late, that tells us they’re trying to sweep it under the rug.”

“It’s on video, y’all,” Crump added. “It’s no mystery what happened.”

Fortson, 23, was killed May 3 by Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Eddie Duran in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The airman answered the door to his apartment while holding a gun pointed at the floor and was killed within seconds, body camera video showed.

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden fired Duran, saying his life was never in danger and he should not have fired the gun.

An internal affairs investigation by the sheriff’s office found that Fortson “made no hostile, offensive movement, and therefore the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable.”

On Friday, Crump said his team had been informed that authorities would make a decision on charges on August 23.

“Mark your calendars, brothers and sisters, mark your calendars,” Crump told supporters gathered for the news conference in a church sanctuary in Fort Walton Beach.

The Aug. 23 date came from a top official in the state’s attorney’s office, Crump said. Neither State’s Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden, who oversees the area, nor her staff responded to requests for comment Friday.

Fortson, who was from metro Atlanta, was stationed at Hurlburt Air Force Field in the Florida Panhandle. At his funeral outside Atlanta in May, hundreds of blue-suited Air Force personnel filed past his casket draped with an American flag.

Now, Crump and family want the former deputy to face the charges.

“For the state’s attorney, you have everything you need,” Crump said. “The only question is, will you?”