A family lawyer Roger Fortson insisted Thursday that body camera video from the Florida sheriff’s deputy who killed the senior Black Air Force airman and police radio audio support his claim that the deputy went to the wrong apartment while responding to a call from domestic disturbance that day.
At a press conference, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump played police radio audio in which a dispatcher says a “fourth participant” gave them information about the location of the disturbance.
“Uh, there’s nothing left but a man and a woman,” the dispatcher tells the officers. “It’s all third-party information from the leasing office front desk.”
The press conference was held at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, and was attended by Fortson’s parents, siblings and other family members.
Crump said radio audio was condensed to remove communications that were not relevant to the incident at the apartment complex where Fortson was shot six times. NBC News has not heard an unedited version of the audio.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is handling the criminal investigation into the shooting, did not immediately return requests for comment on the family’s claim that the deputy went to the wrong door. The sheriff’s office has not released an incident report or any 911 records. Sheriff Eric Aden previously said the deputy did not enter the wrong apartment.
Fortson, 23, was shot May 3 in the doorway of his Fort Walton Beach apartment by a sheriff’s office deputy responding to an apparent domestic dispute. Fortson’s family and their attorneys have insisted that the deputy went to the wrong apartment because Fortson was home alone and on a FaceTime call with his girlfriend at the time of the incident. Crump said Thursday that the two were not raising their voices and planned to see each other that weekend. Crump and Fortson family claim that his death was unjustified.
Crump showed two body camera clips of the officer being led through the apartment complex by a woman. At one point, the deputy asks him: “Which door?” She tells him, “I’m not sure.” The woman also tells the deputy that she heard a commotion that included a slap two weeks ago and says, “I wasn’t sure where it came from.”
The woman later told the deputy that he should go to apartment 1401, the footage shows. It’s unclear who the woman is, but Crump said Thursday that he believes she works in the complex’s leasing office.
When the deputy arrives at the apartment, he first knocks without identifying himself. He then knocks twice more, identifies himself as a member of the sheriff’s office, and walks away from the door.
The video shows Fortson answering the door to his apartment with a gun in his right hand pointed downwards and being shot by the deputy within seconds. After the shots were fired, the deputy shouted for Fortson to drop the gun. Fortson was the legal owner of the firearm, Crump said.
Crump said multiple times Thursday that he believed the deputy “used excessive force” and “executed” Fortson.
“Like your mother said, they can’t tarnish your reputation,” Crump said. “But she feels that as long as they continue to say they went to the right apartment, they are tarnishing his reputation. Because Roger didn’t have any domestic disturbances. Roger had no criminal record.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
