June 2024. Blues Vol 40 No.6

GUEST COMENTARY
police law news
Daniel Carr
Officer Involved: Roger Fortson
This case hit my radar a few
days ago when Ben Crump gave
several interviews to mainstream
media. He laid out a series of
awful circumstances that results
in an Officer-Involved-Shooting
(OIS) - that left a 23-year-old
man dead.
Within a few hours of hearing
his version of the events I posted
a story on Tik Tok and Instagram
and cautioned people to not
believe anything that Crump says
- without independent evidence
to back it up.
In response I received multiple
messages calling me a “racist”.
Today, the video was released
and proved that Ben Crump again
had lied about an OIS.
INVOLVED
This case involved the Okaloosa
County Sheriff’s Office in Florida
and a young man named Roger
Fortson. Mr. Fortson was airman
in the U.S. Air Force and had been
living in off-base housing.
THE CLAIM
Ben Crump made three major
claims about this case:
1. The police responded to the
“wrong” apartment.
2. The police did not announce
their presence
3. The police forced entry into
the residence.
THE BODY CAM VIDEO
As of this afternoon the body
cam video had not been released
and people across social media
continued to parrot the lies of
24 The Blues - June ‘24
Ben Crump.
It was then that I was
sent the body cam
video from a source.
The body cam footage
was playing on a police
computer and had
been recorded by a cell
phone. I checked Google
and X and realized
that I was watching
body cam footage of
this incident that had
not been made public
yet.
I posted the video
on my X and YouTube
platforms. Ten minutes later Ben
Crump and others posted the
same footage and it all went
viral.
WHAT HAPPENED
The apartment complex manager
called police and reported
a “domestic disturbance” involving
a man and a woman at the
complex. A deputy responded to
the apartment and knocked on
the door. The deputy then yelled,
“Sheriff’s Office!” multiple times
in between knocking. Eventually
the door was opened by Mr.
Fortson - who was holding a
gun in his right hand.
The deputy then fired his
weapon at Mr. Fortson multiple
times - killing him.
ANALYSIS
This call was in reference to a
domestic disturbance - one of
the most statistically dangerous
calls for police officers to respond
to.
The deputy yelled “Sheriff’s
Office!” multiple times. It would
be reasonable for the deputy to
believe that the occupants of the
apartment heard him and knew
that he was law enforcement.
When Mr. Fortson opened the
door holding the gun - what
should the deputy have thought
in the moment?
A reasonable police officer
would think:
This guy knows that I am a police
officer yet he answered the
door holding a gun anyway. That
is an overt deadly threat.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight
- we know that Mr. Fortson
was a U.S. airman and likely had
no ill intent toward the deputy.
But, that is not relevant. The
relevant issue is - what would