OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WEAR) — The Southern Poverty Law Center is calling for the end of police violence against Black people in the wake of the shooting death of Air Force airman Roger Fortson by a Florida deputy.
Others are urging the community to not jump to conclusions until the Florida Department of Law Enforcement finishes its investigation.
The military community is mourning the loss of the 23-year-old senior airman who was stationed at Hurlburt Field. Fortson was shot and killed by an Okaloosa County deputy on May 3 at his apartment in Fort Walton Beach.
Even top ranking officers in the Air Force at the Pentagon are weighing in.
The secretary is following this closely," said Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder. "I would like to offer our thoughts and prayers to Airman Fortson's family. We are of course saddened by the loss of one of our own."Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Fortson family, held a news conference Thursday, calling the 23-year-old a "patriot" and saying officers responded to the wrong apartment. Police have pushed back on that claim and released bodycam footage showing the moments leading up to the incident.
The deputy involved has been placed on administrative leave, as per standard protocol for officer-involved shootings.
Locals with military backgrounds are also weighing in.
"I worked at Eglin for 30-something years and some of our airmen feel all kinds of ways," says Rev. Cecil Williams with Gregg Chapel AME Church in Fort Walton Beach. "Very hurtful, very hurtful. We hate to see anybody, anybody get killed."
The SPLC is calling for a full investigation. The organization is urging to end the "horrific cycle of police violence against Black people."
Police departments across America must confront the cultures of violence and anti-blackness that allow for these tragedies to continue," the president and CEO of the organization said. "As a nation, we must at last reckon with our past, and with the painful legacy of racism that persists today, to end the bias and hate that stains so many of our institutions. ""I don't think this has anything to do with race," Rev. Williams said. "We definitely should not put that on the table."
The president of the Okaloosa NAACP said he's glad the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Department released the body camera footage.
"Our view of the body camera justifies the call, we think, for the charges to be brought against the deputy involved," Sabu Williams said. "We saw no justifiable reason for him to shoot. From the time that that man opened the door, five or six shots went into him in four seconds. No command was ever given. The gun was not pointing at the deputy at any point and the deputy didn't give Mr. Fortson any commands until after he shot him."
He said because of incidents in the past involving officers shooting and killing people of color, there could be some unconscious bias.
"It just seems like it happens too much in our particular case when its a person of color," Sabu Williams said.
He said the body camera shows after the first knock on the door, no altercation behind the door could be heard.
So why was he so engaged?" Sabu Williams said. "Why did he think something was going on that he had his gun out ready to shoot? It was just horrible to see."Rev. Williams is urging the community to be patient until all of the facts are presented.
"I don't think anybody needs to draw their own conclusions," he said. "Lets just be patient. Lets see what FDLE says and we go from there."
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