Airman shot by deputy doted on little sister and aimed to buy mom a house, family says

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — Just two days before a deputy shot him dead in Florida, U.S. Air Force pilot Roger Fortson called home to find out what his 10-year-old sister wanted for her birthday.

It was a typical gesture for the 23-year-old from Atlanta, who adored the girl and was committed to helping her, a younger brother and his mother thrive, his family said.

“He tried to give me everything I could never get for myself,” his mother, Chantemekki Fortson, said Thursday at a news conference in Fort Walton Beach, where her son lived when he was killed.

He was her “gift,” she said, the man who taught her to love and forgive, and who served as her colleague and counselor.

An Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy shot Fortson on May 3. Sheriff’s officials say he acted in self-defense when he responded to a call about a disturbance at the apartment complex. But civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Fortson family, has accused the deputy of going to the wrong apartment and said the shooting was unjustified.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.

At Thursday’s press conference, Chantemekki Fortson held a large framed portrait of her son in dress uniform. He joined the Air Force in 2019, the same year he graduated from Ronald McNair — a majority-black high school in metro Atlanta’s DeKalb County where about half of students don’t graduate within four years.

Air Force service was a lifelong dream and Fortson rose to the rank of senior airman. He was stationed at Hurlburt Field near Fort Walton Beach.

“Where we come from, we don’t end up where Roger ended up,” his mother said.

Fortson, a gunner aboard the AC-130J, earned a Combat Appearance Air Medal, which is typically awarded after 20 sorties in a combat zone or for conspicuous gallantry or achievement during a single mission. An Air Force official said Fortson’s award reflected both: completing flights in a combat zone and taking specific actions during one of the missions to address an in-flight emergency and continue the mission . The official spoke on condition of anonymity to provide additional details that had not been made public.

But his service, like almost everything else he did, had a greater purpose.

“He was trying to help his family have a better life,” Crump said Thursday.

That meant serving as a role model for his 16-year-old brother, his mother said, and saving to buy her a house and get her a new car. His nickname was ‘Mr. Make it work.”

Chantemekki Fortson recalled that her son, who was in high school at the time, accompanied her to the hospital in an ambulance when she was in labor with her daughter, and tried to tell the doctor how to deliver the baby.

The girl and his brother were always on his mind. Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron as a special missions pilot, where one of his duties was to load the gun’s 30mm and 105mm cannons.

Chantemekki Fortson said her son was injured while loading a plane and was in so much pain he thought he was going to die. But he told his mother to persevere for his brother and sister.

He was also by her side when she had an accident a short time later and had to go to the emergency room.

“That was the kind of gift he was,” she said. “They took something that can never be replaced.”

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Thanawala reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington contributed.