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A judge denied bond on Tuesday for a fired deputy in the shooting of a Black U.S. Air Force senior airman who answered his apartment door while holding a gun pointed at the floor.
Former Okaloosa County deputy Eddie Duran, 38, was charged with manslaughter with a firearm in the May 3 shooting death of 23-year-old Roger Fortson. The rare charge against a Florida law enforcement officer is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
The judge ordered him held until a Thursday pre-trial detention hearing, despite objections from his lawyer, who said he should be released now.
“They know he’s going to show up,” Attorney Rod Smith said. “We believe that he’s no risk, no flight risk. He’s going to show up Thursday, he’s going to show up any time, he need not spend the time in the jail the next few days.”
The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office initially said Duran fired in self defense after encountering a man with a gun, but Sheriff Eric Aden fired Duran on May 31 after an internal investigation concluded his life was not in danger when he opened fire. Outside law enforcement experts have also said that an officer cannot shoot only because a possible suspect is holding a gun if there is no threat.
Fortson had been talking with his girlfriend in a Facetime video call that recorded audio of the encounter, and Duran's body camera video showed what happened.
Duran had been sent to Fortson’s Fort Walton Beach apartment in response to a domestic disturbance report that turned out to be false. After repeated knocking, Fortson opened the door while holding his handgun at his side, pointed down. Authorities say that Duran shot him multiple times and only then did he tell Fortson to drop the gun.
According to the internal affairs report of the shooting, Duran told investigators that when Fortson opened the door, he saw aggression in the airman’s eyes. He said he fired because, “I’m standing there thinking I’m about to get shot, I’m about to die.”
