Airman Roger Fortson. Image by Boch. Base images USAF, OCSD
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department has a problem on its hands. Several actually. But they severed relations with one of their many problems last Friday by terminating the trigger happy Deputy Eddie Duran after he shot and killed a USAF Special Operations airman Roger Fortson almost a month before.
This on the heels of the “falling acorn” incident where two deputies performed a mag dump on a parked squad SUV after mistaking the sound of an acorn striking the top of the squad car for gunfire. An occupied squad car at that, with a handcuffed suspect inside. Yes, it’s the very same department.
While “Okaloosa County” might not ring a bell for most at first, it’s a very popular tourist destination in the panhandle of Florida with such famed beach towns as Fort Walton Beach and Destin. It’s also home to Eglin AFB.
Fortson answered a loud knock at his door while holding a gun at his side. While it’s not the smartest move, it was kind of understandable given the circumstances. We’ve covered answering the door to unexpected knocks before. In short, it’s okay to bring your gun, but make sure it’s not visible.
In this case, bodycam video shows that Fortson merely held the gun at his side in a non-threatening manner after answering a very three very aggressive knocks at his door by someone claiming to be a sheriff’s deputy after the final two pounding knocks.
The department issued a release on Facebook on May 31st copsplaining the reason for Deputy Trigger Happy’s termination.
Sadly, Sheriff Eric Aden failed to address the uniform, utter lack of professionalism among his department’s support staff. When I called to register my criticism of how the deputy handled the situation shortly after the bodycam’s release, several someones at Sheriff Aden’s agency would pick up the phone and immediately hang it up. This happened while calling two of the department’s lines on two different days. Why it’s almost like the support staff settled on that manner of dealing with the callers instead of handling them professionally.
Presumably they saw the 217 area code on their caller ID and assumed that it was another angry American calling to share their displeasure at the OCSD’s apparent homicide of a good guy American by their trigger-happy deputies. However in this day and age of number transportability, they had no way of knowing if I was calling from California or from the parking lot across the street. The appalling lack of professionalism by the support staff of the department was not addressed in follow-up written correspondence sent to both the sheriff’s email address and their “professional standards” email address.
OKALOOSA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE RELEASES ADMINISTRATIVE INTERNAL AFFAIRS INVESTIGATION INTO THE FATAL DEPUTY-INVOLVED SHOOTING OF ROGER FORTSON
SHALIMAR, Fla. (May 31, 2024) – The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) has terminated Deputy Eddie Duran following the completion of an administrative internal affairs investigation into the death of Roger Fortson on May 3. The administrative investigation determined the deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy.
The OCSO administrative internal affairs investigation, opened immediately after the shooting, is separate from the active criminal investigation that remains ongoing with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. An administrative investigation by the OCSO Office of Professional Standards is inclusive of reports prepared and submitted by OCSO investigators, response to the scene, documented evidence, and official statements. It is limited in scope to determine whether the former deputy violated agency policy. Both the administrative and criminal investigations into the former deputy’s actions are required under Florida law after a fatal deputy-involved shooting. Mr. Fortson is not the subject of either investigation.
OCSO’s General Order 04.01 – Response to Resistance states OCSO deputies are authorized to use only that amount of force that is objectively reasonable to perform their duties. The policy states, “Deadly force shall only be used when the officer reasonably believes that the action is in defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in defense of any person in imminent danger of serious physical injury.” This policy directly references a legal standard established by the United States Supreme Court in Graham v. Connor, which acknowledges the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments – in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving – about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation. The policy goes on to explain, “Deadly force resistance is a subject’s hostile, attacking movements with or without a weapon that create a reasonable perception by the officer that the subject intends to cause and has the capability of causing death or great bodily harm to the officer or others.”
The objective facts as determined by the administrative investigation are:
• The former deputy was dispatched to an in-progress physical disturbance at an apartment complex located at 319 Racetrack Road NW. Dispatch records confirm the location of the disturbance was reported to be taking place in Unit 1401.
• On arrival at the apartment complex to which he was dispatched to, the former deputy met with an employee of the apartment complex who identified Unit 1401 as the location of the disturbance and relayed to the former deputy that there had been recent unreported disturbances at or around the same apartment.
• The former deputy’s interaction with the apartment complex’s employee and all further actions were recorded by his body-worn camera.
• Upon arriving at the door to Unit 1401, the former deputy listened for sounds of any disturbance inside the apartment. Hearing none, the former deputy knocked without announcing and listened for a response. When describing what he heard, the former deputy said he heard: “Something to the effect of it’s the f****** police.”
• The former deputy knocked loudly two more times and announced “Sheriff’s Office” both of those times. The administrative investigation found that the former deputy knocked three times and announced his presence two times within approximately 40 seconds.
• When Mr. Fortson opened the door, the former deputy stated he saw Mr. Fortson holding a firearm in his right hand. The firearm was pointed at the ground sufficiently enough for the former deputy to clearly see the rear face of the rear sight.
• The former deputy confirmed Mr. Fortson did not physically resist him in any way, and the investigation concluded that Mr. Forston did not point the gun in the former deputy’s direction.
OCSO General Order 04.01 – Response to Resistance, Section F.2.d. states, “Deadly force resistance is a subject’s hostile, attacking movements with or without a weapon that create a reasonable perception by the officer that the subject intends to cause and has the capability of causing death or great bodily harm to the officer or others.” The objective facts of the administrative investigation concluded that 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 policy.
“This tragic incident should have never occurred,” said Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden. “The objective facts do not support the use of deadly force as an appropriate response to Mr. Fortson’s actions. Mr. Fortson did not commit any crime. By all accounts, he was an exceptional airman and individual.”
Sheriff Aden continued, “Our mission at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office is to ensure fair and equal administration of the law, safeguard civil liberties and preserve public safety; doing so with professionalism and unity of purpose, while being good stewards of the public trust. As your Sheriff, I am committed to this mission and to ensure our deputies adhere to the professional and safety standards that come with the inherent risk of being a first responder who, by the very nature of their calling, must respond to potentially dangerous situations where they cannot know what they are about to encounter. In this case, the former deputy did not meet the standard of objective reasonableness and his use of control to resistance was excessive.”
“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. We continue to wish Mr. Fortson’s family comfort and peace,” Sheriff Aden concluded.
The criminal investigation against now-former Deputy Trigger Happy continues. As it should. We look forward to him seeing his day of justice in a court of law.
Admittedly Oklaoosa County is a big department that covers many beaches, streets, waters and much more in the tourist haven. They undoubtedly have hundreds of thousands if not over a million formal contacts with people each year, the overwhelming majority of which are handled with professionalism and decency. It’s just that when things go wrong and gross negligence of deputies on the streets results in the death of innocent people (or those nearly killed in the case of the acorn incident), that’s…beyond troubling.
These are made worse when the agency’s support staff fail to provide professional service following foul-ups by trigger happy deputies. That readily correctible lack of professionalism is just as unacceptable. Especially when leadership fails to correct it.
Both were idiots.
But the cop was a bigger one.
The cop didn’t even get out the obligatory…. “Drop the….POW POW POW…gun”
He took the new improved training method of… “POW POW POW … drop the gun!”
You fire people for falsifying paperwork. If any of us had done that, I’m sure fired isn’t what we would be facing.
Good grief.
DON’T OPEN THE DOOR!
Best advice here.
Don’t ever answer the door if the knock is unexpected.
Then Barney Fife will be back with the ATF trained SWAT team.
Well I’ve been saying for years on TTAG now. Government agents can kill you. And not be prosecuted. They kill you by accident. They kill you on purpose and you’re not a threat.
You kill to protect your private property. You get prosecuted. The government kills to protect government property. They don’t get prosecuted.
And the libertarians liberals and the Leftists all agree with it.
…And free drugs and butt sex. Dont forget that
With all the crime happening nowadays people do not trust who comes knocking on their door and those knocking on the door do not trust who is inside. And that’s where the question what if the fear factor is only imaginary matters. Bottom line…The deputy is the professional and he dropped the ball and lost a career in LE and no telling how far a lawsuit will go.
Keeping what happened to the deputy in mind, the Arkansas atf set the stage so in the dark they could murder a man they knew beforehand would rightfully defend his home and family in the dark from what he would naturally perceive to be a home invasion. That despicable, cowardly, diabolical set-up cannot be allowed to skate by. The atf and all who participated in the murder should never be in LE and sued into oblivion. FJB.
TRUMP 2024.
Let’s get it correct. It’s lega.l bu.tt sex. That’s what they fought for, for decades. They certainly were not fighting for the 2A.
In my opinion that was basically a lose-lose situation for the deputy.
The deputy was responding to a seemingly legitimate domestic disturbance call. For the unaware, domestic disturbance calls are incredibly unpredictable, dynamic, tense, explosive (figuratively), and even deadly. Then the deputy knocks and announces Sheriff’s office twice which leads to an occupant opening the door with a handgun in hand.
At that point the deputy was in a lose-lose situation:
1) If the deputy keeps his handgun in its holster and has to wait for the occupant to start raising his handgun before he can draw from his holster, he is toast.
2) If the deputy immediately draws and shoots, he is toast (in terms of legal liability).
I do not see any easy/simple way to define this as either a “good” or “bad” shoot.
We can learn two lessons from this story, though. First, do NOT open your door for strangers, even someone in a law enforcement uniform. Talk to them through the door or provide your telephone number so they can call you and confirm or disprove any allegations. Second, do NOT open your door with ANYTHING in hand. Keep a handgun in your pocket, holster, and/or belt. Keep a club, sword, or long gun slung over your shoulder or sitting on the floor close to you.
Better still – don’t open the door.
You are not legally required to answer ANY knock at a door. If law enforcement has a warrant, they aren’t going to wait for you to answer the door.
The writer of this article, and all of these commenters condemning the cop…and odds are, not not a single one has ever had to make a split second life/death decision, much less found them selves in a situation similar to what this officer faced.
The Airman made a bad decision to open the door. But again, we will never know what his reasoning was either, because the explanation for it died with him.
This was an extremely unfortunate incident for EVERYONE involved, including the families of both men. Rather than condemning either party….we should learn from the mistakes made on BOTH sides that lead up to it.
But hey…it TTAG/ So what can we really expect other than the same ignorance based bias we find in the mainstream media?
“Highly trained professionals.”
Haha… TTAG and MSM are showing their bias!
It’s easy to tell that TTAG has never made a split second decision to murder an innocent man for opening his door after being ordered to open it!
“In this case, bodycam video shows that Fortson merely held the gun at his side in a non-threatening manner….”
Thought the mantra “Action beats reaction” always applied. The suspect was already unholstered. How many reports of people beating an unholstered firearm in a CQB shooting event?
Remember Team, there are no innocent civilians, good luck and good hunting.
Many thanks for that! IMDB has shown to be very beneficial. Though it’s extremely unusual, there are moments when I question something. Thank to you for the suggestion!
Mr Fortson was killed by Okaloosa county sheriff. The acorn incident occurred in Pensacola which is Escambia county, these are not the same department! They are well over 40 miles apart and separated by Santa Rosa county.
When all you have is a hammer..
Now for the grand jury
Both were idiots.
But the cop was a bigger one.
The cop didn’t even get out the obligatory…. “Drop the….POW POW POW…gun”
He took the new improved training method of… “POW POW POW … drop the gun!”
You fire people for falsifying paperwork. If any of us had done that, I’m sure fired isn’t what we would be facing.
Good grief.
DON’T OPEN THE DOOR!
Best advice here.
Don’t ever answer the door if the knock is unexpected.
Then Barney Fife will be back with the ATF trained SWAT team.
Well I’ve been saying for years on TTAG now. Government agents can kill you. And not be prosecuted. They kill you by accident. They kill you on purpose and you’re not a threat.
You kill to protect your private property. You get prosecuted. The government kills to protect government property. They don’t get prosecuted.
And the libertarians liberals and the Leftists all agree with it.
…And free drugs and butt sex. Dont forget that
With all the crime happening nowadays people do not trust who comes knocking on their door and those knocking on the door do not trust who is inside. And that’s where the question what if the fear factor is only imaginary matters. Bottom line…The deputy is the professional and he dropped the ball and lost a career in LE and no telling how far a lawsuit will go.
Keeping what happened to the deputy in mind, the Arkansas atf set the stage so in the dark they could murder a man they knew beforehand would rightfully defend his home and family in the dark from what he would naturally perceive to be a home invasion. That despicable, cowardly, diabolical set-up cannot be allowed to skate by. The atf and all who participated in the murder should never be in LE and sued into oblivion. FJB.
TRUMP 2024.
Let’s get it correct. It’s lega.l bu.tt sex. That’s what they fought for, for decades. They certainly were not fighting for the 2A.
In my opinion that was basically a lose-lose situation for the deputy.
The deputy was responding to a seemingly legitimate domestic disturbance call. For the unaware, domestic disturbance calls are incredibly unpredictable, dynamic, tense, explosive (figuratively), and even deadly. Then the deputy knocks and announces Sheriff’s office twice which leads to an occupant opening the door with a handgun in hand.
At that point the deputy was in a lose-lose situation:
1) If the deputy keeps his handgun in its holster and has to wait for the occupant to start raising his handgun before he can draw from his holster, he is toast.
2) If the deputy immediately draws and shoots, he is toast (in terms of legal liability).
I do not see any easy/simple way to define this as either a “good” or “bad” shoot.
We can learn two lessons from this story, though. First, do NOT open your door for strangers, even someone in a law enforcement uniform. Talk to them through the door or provide your telephone number so they can call you and confirm or disprove any allegations. Second, do NOT open your door with ANYTHING in hand. Keep a handgun in your pocket, holster, and/or belt. Keep a club, sword, or long gun slung over your shoulder or sitting on the floor close to you.
Better still – don’t open the door.
You are not legally required to answer ANY knock at a door. If law enforcement has a warrant, they aren’t going to wait for you to answer the door.
The writer of this article, and all of these commenters condemning the cop…and odds are, not not a single one has ever had to make a split second life/death decision, much less found them selves in a situation similar to what this officer faced.
The Airman made a bad decision to open the door. But again, we will never know what his reasoning was either, because the explanation for it died with him.
This was an extremely unfortunate incident for EVERYONE involved, including the families of both men. Rather than condemning either party….we should learn from the mistakes made on BOTH sides that lead up to it.
But hey…it TTAG/ So what can we really expect other than the same ignorance based bias we find in the mainstream media?
“Highly trained professionals.”
Haha… TTAG and MSM are showing their bias!
It’s easy to tell that TTAG has never made a split second decision to murder an innocent man for opening his door after being ordered to open it!
“In this case, bodycam video shows that Fortson merely held the gun at his side in a non-threatening manner….”
Thought the mantra “Action beats reaction” always applied. The suspect was already unholstered. How many reports of people beating an unholstered firearm in a CQB shooting event?
Remember Team, there are no innocent civilians, good luck and good hunting.
Many thanks for that! IMDB has shown to be very beneficial. Though it’s extremely unusual, there are moments when I question something. Thank to you for the suggestion!
Mr Fortson was killed by Okaloosa county sheriff. The acorn incident occurred in Pensacola which is Escambia county, these are not the same department! They are well over 40 miles apart and separated by Santa Rosa county.
Comments are closed.