The mother of the 23-year-old special operations airman who was shot and killed May 3 by a Florida sheriff’s deputy said the recent firing of that deputy is just a start and hopes to see more accountability.
“A lot has to be done,” Meka Fortson, the mother of Roger Fortson, told Military.com. “It’s moving too slow, and more needs to happen.”
Deputy Eddie Duran, an Army veteran who had been with the department since 2019, was fired from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office when it was determined that his “use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy,” according to an Administrative Internal Affairs investigation released Friday. Duran encountered Roger Fortson, a 23-year-old airman at Hurlburt Field, and shot him multiple times after the airman opened his apartment door with his legally owned firearm held by his side.
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A day prior to the report being released and Duran’s firing being announced, Sheriff Eric Aden attended a town hall at Hurlburt Field alongside Air Force Special Operations Command leadership, as well as community leaders, to speak to airmen about Fortson’s death.
The hourslong meeting gave airmen the opportunity to ask Aden “many questions concerning the status and details of the ongoing investigations and feelings of frustration and sadness,” Air Force Special Operations Command said in a news release.
Meka…
