Experts Weigh In On Roger Fortson Shooting

BOSSIP recently reported on the shooting death of Roger Fortson Jr. at the hands of an Okaloosa County, Florida sheriff’s deputy, and now there’s a new update. As previously reported, an unnamed officer was responding to a 911 call about an alleged disturbance inside Fortson’s apartment. Fortson answered the door holding his legal firearm as he was concerned about the heavy knocks on the door. The publicly released body camera video shows the officer opening fire immediately without giving orders to drop the weapon or ask a single question.

Now according to a new AP report, criminology experts around the country are chiming in to give their interpretation of the situation.

“The speed of the shooting is pretty intense. It’s happening very, very fast,” Ian Adams, an assistant professor who studies criminology at the University of South Carolina and a former police officer, said after watching the deputy’s body camera video of Fortson’s shooting.

“The presence of a gun enhances the risk. But mere presence is not at all justification for using deadly force,” Adams said.

Sheriff Eric Aden is squarely on the side of his deputy refuting early reports that he had gone to the wrong apartment.

Ubiquitous civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Fortson’s family insist that the deputy must have made a mistake because the 23-year-old Air Force airman was alone in the apartment and talking to his girlfriend on FaceTime. There was no “disturbance.”

Other “experts” like a former police officer and criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, David Klinger, says no such warnings are required before police shoot whoever they want.

“But if pausing to give a warning or a verbal command is going to increase the risk of a deadly threat, then it isn’t feasible,” he said per AP. 

Interestingly enough, there was a recent viral video that shows exactly how much self-control police officers can have when they don’t want to shoot someone, even if that someone is armed with a gun.

See how easy that was…?

Channel 2 Action News reports that Fortson’s funeral is planned for this Friday, May 17.