More than three months after a U.S. Air Force pilot was shot by a Florida sheriff’s deputy. His family and their attorney are demanding that prosecutors decide whether to charge the former police officer.
During a press conference on Friday, civil rights attorney Ben Crump questioned why the investigation was taking so long, noting that the shooting of Senior Airman Roger Fortson was captured on the deputy’s body camera bodycam video.
He said that “for black people in America, when they delay, delay, delay, that tells us they’re trying to sweep it under the rug.”
“It’s on video, guys,” Crump added. “There’s no mystery what happened.”
Fortson, 23, was killed on May 3 by Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Eddie Duran in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The pilot opened his apartment door while pointing a gun at the ground and was killed within seconds, body camera footage showed.
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden fired Duranand said his life was never in danger and that he should not have fired his weapon.
An internal affairs investigation by the sheriff’s office found that Fortson “did not make hostile, offensive movements, and therefore the former deputy sheriff’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable.”
On Friday, Crump said his team has been told authorities will make a charging decision on Aug. 23.
“Mark your calendars, brothers and sisters, mark your calendars,” Crump told supporters gathered for the news conference at a church in Fort Walton Beach.
The Aug. 23 date came from a top official in the state attorney’s office, Crump said. Neither State 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 the Air Force’s Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle. At his funeral outside Atlanta in May, hundreds of Air Force members wore dress blue walked past his coffindraped with an American flag.
Crump and his family now want the former officer charged.
“For the district attorney, you have everything you need,” Crump said. “The only question is, are you going to do it?”