CNN
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A Florida sheriff’s office has publicly released bodycam footage from a deputy who fatally shot a Black airman in his home last week.
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden shared the video during a Thursday news conference, shortly after an attorney for the 23-year-old victim’s family called for its release.
CNN is reviewing the footage and will update this story.
The victim has been identified by his family as Roger Fortson, an active-duty senior airman, according to attorney Ben Crump, who said at an earlier news conference Thursday the family was set to view the bodycam video early this afternoon.
Crump had called for the public release of the bodycam footage, saying a witness believes the deputy was at the wrong apartment.
“The circumstances surrounding Roger’s death raise serious questions that demand immediate answers from authorities, especially considering the alarming witness statement that the police entered the wrong apartment,” Crump said in a statement, citing the account of a person who was on FaceTime with Fortson at the time of the shooting.
The sheriff told reporters he had met with Fortson’s family and said, “We are not hiding, covering up or taking action that would result in a rushed judgment of Mr. Fortson or our deputy.”
“I’ve asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to handle the criminal investigation that is required under these circumstances,” Aden said. “No determination has been made as to whether the deputy’s actions were justified or not.”
Aden said in a previous statement deputies responded last Friday to an apartment after receiving a call for “a disturbance in progress.”
“Hearing sounds of a disturbance, (a deputy) reacted in self-defense after he encountered a 23-year-old man armed with a gun and after the deputy had identified himself as law enforcement,” the sheriff said.
“The deputy shot the man, who later succumbed to his injuries,” said the sheriff. The deputy involved in the shooting has not been identified by officials.
“I immediately placed the deputy on administrative leave and have asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct the investigation that is required in such incidents,” the sheriff’s statement said.
CNN has reached out to the sheriff’s office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement for additional information about the shooting, which brings to mind similar cases that saw a law enforcement officer fatally shoot a Black person in their own home – leading, in some instances, to that officer being sentenced to prison.
At a news conference Thursday, Crump and Fortson’s mother described him as a patriot who had long dreamed of serving in the US Air Force. He was a responsible young man who respected authority, they said, and he’d hoped to buy his mother and younger siblings a house.
They urged law enforcement to release more information about the shooting, saying that the narrative put forward so far suggested Fortson had done something wrong.
“To the sheriff’s department that took my gift … I need you guys to tell the truth about my son. I need you to get his reputation right,” Fortson’s mother said.
“I…
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