Florida Sheriff Fires Trigger-Happy Deputy Who Killed USAF Airman

Remember that Florida Sheriff’s Department where a couple of their deputies shot up a police SUV early this year when they mistook the sound of an acorn striking the squad car for a gunshot? While that trigger-happy response thankfully resulted in no human fatalities, another incident by the same department left a US Air Force Special Operations Airman dead.

Late this past week, the Oklaloosa County Sheriff fired the deputy who shot Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson for the high crime of answering his door with a gun in his hand. The gun was being held at Fortson’s side in a non-threatening manner. What’s more, Senior Airman Fortson was on solid legal ground for answering his door with a gun in hand.

Sure, it may not have been the smartest thing Fortson could have done, but at the same time, can you blame him after someone banged on his door repeatedly, then stood off to the side where he could not be seen, much less identified? The deputy, by the way, had knocked on the wrong door. He was looking for a suspect in another apartment.

Here’s the deputy’s body cam video showing the shooting. He arrives at the apartment at about the 2:40 mark . . .

From WKRG . . .

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office announced on Facebook Friday it has terminated the deputy who shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson.

Deputy Eddie Duran was terminated following the completion of OCSO’s administrative internal affairs investigation into the death of Roger Fortson on May 3.

In the statement posted on a now locked down Facebook page, Sheriff Eric Aden wrote . . .

“I want to thank our dedicated team for their around-the-clock effort to ensure a thorough review of the facts here. Since the tragedy occurred, our office has been fully accountable and transparent in its compliance with statutory requirements, providing numerous public statements, making accessible the available body-worn camera footage and other related records, meeting with Mr. Forston’s family and legal counsel, and communicating openly with the U.S. Air Force and our community-at-large…”

Not exactly, Sheriff.

When I called the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office after viewing the video shortly after its release, I ran into OCSD employees who repeatedly picked up the main line to the department and promptly hung up. The first time I thought it was just a mistake. By the fifth time in ten minutes, it was clear they had no interest in talking to anyone about the incident.

The next day they pulled the same stunt, so I called another division. I got the same thing there. Their phones were probably ringing like a radio station giving away Taylor Swift tickets. Sheriff Aden’s “dedicated team” clearly had no desire to “communicate openly” with anyone about the shooting and it certainly seemed to be more than a single employee practicing their brand of accountability and transparency.

The sooner trigger-happy Deputy Duran gets his day in the court the better. Justice can’t come soon enough for him.