Former Florida sheriff’s deputy Eddie Lee Duran Jr. has been charged with manslaughter for killing Senior Airman Roger Fortson in a split-second shooting at his off-base apartment, court documents show, a line-of-duty shooting that Duran’s department ruled as “not objectively reasonable.”
“A warrant for Duran’s arrest is outstanding at this time,” Florida State Attorney for the 1st Judicial Circuit Ginger Bowden Madden said in a statement on Friday. “If convicted as charged, Duran faces a maximum sentence of thirty years in state prison.”
Task & Purpose was unable to reach Duran’s attorney on Friday afternoon.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office announced on May 31 that Duran had been fired after an administrative investigation found “Mr. Fortson did not make any hostile, attacking movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable under OSCO’s [Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office] policy,” the sheriff’s office announced in a news release.
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Duran’s body camera recorded his deadly encounter with Fortson. After Duran knocked on Fortson’s apartment door, Fortson opened it while holding a pistol. Duran fired at least five times before yelling “Drop the gun!”
Roughly five seconds elapsed from the time Fortson opened the door until he fell to the floor with gunshot wounds.
“The former deputy confirmed Mr. Fortson did not physically resist him in any way, and the investigation concluded that Mr. Fortson did not point the gun in the former deputy’s direction,” the sheriff’s office’s May 31 news release says.
At the time of his death, Fortson, 23, was an AC-130 crew member assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Florida.
His family and their attorney issued a statement on Friday about news that Duran had been charged with manslaughter: “This decision marks the first step towards justice for the family of Roger Fortson. Nothing can ever bring Roger back, and our fight is far from over, but we are hopeful that this arrest and these charges will result in real justice for the Fortson family. Let this be a reminder to law enforcement officers everywhere that they swore a solemn oath to protect and defend, and their actions have consequences, especially when it results in the loss of life.”