FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. – A judge allowed bond Thursday for a Florida sheriff's deputy who was fired and charged with manslaughter after shooting a U.S. Air Force senior airman at the Black man's apartment door.
Former Okaloosa County deputy Eddie Duran, 38, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter with a firearm, a rare charge against a Florida law enforcement officer. Duran's body camera recorded him shooting 23-year-old Roger Fortson on May 3 immediately after Fortson opened the door while holding a handgun pointed at the floor.
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Judge Terrance R. Ketchel set bond at $100,000 and said Duran cannot possess a firearm or leave the area, though he will not have to wear a GPS tracker. He was released from jail shortly after Thursday's hearing, jail records show.
Duran had been ordered held pending Thursday's pretrial detention hearing despite arguments from his lawyer Rodney Smith, who said there's no reason to jail him.
“He has spent his entire life ... his entire career and his military career trying to save people, help people," Smith said at Thursday’s hearing. "He’s not a danger to the community.”
Prosecutor Mark Alderman said “this is a case where we all know what happened.”
“We’ve all seen what happened, he said. “It’s just a question of the interpretation. We’ve all seen that Mr. Duran killed Roger Fortson. Obviously this is a very serious charge."
Duran has been homeschooling his six children in recent months while he’s been out of work and while his wife has been working full-time, Smith said. Duran sat quietly in the courtroom Thursday, dressed in a pink striped jail jumpsuit and glasses. He conferred with his attorneys and at times the clink of metal restraints could be heard.
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.
Duran was responding to a report of a physical fight inside an apartment at the Fort Walton Beach complex. A worker there identified Fortson's apartment as the location, according to sheriff's investigators. At the time, Fortson was alone in his apartment, talking with his girlfriend in a FaceTime video call. Duran’s body camera video showed what happened next.
After repeated knocking, Fortson opened the door. Authorities say that Duran shot him multiple times and only then did he tell Fortson to drop the gun.
Duran told investigators that he saw aggression in Fortson's eyes and fired because, “I’m standing there thinking I’m about to get shot, I’m about to die.”
In a statement released after Thursday’s hearing, Smith said the deputy’s actions “were reasonable and appropriate given the information he was provided relating to the nature and urgency of what he feared to be a potentially dangerous domestic situation.”
In the statement, he described Fortson as “a person who had armed himself before simply responding to what could have been nothing more than a routine effort by law enforcement to make sure that a domestic violence situation did not escalate.”
At Thursday's hearing, Smith said his team has cooperated with authorities, saying that "we’ve turned him in. He’s not going anywhere.”
Smith acknowledged the video evidence of the shooting and national interest in the case.
“We know that we have defenses that we’re going to assert ... qualified immunity, stand your ground as applies to law enforcement,” Smith said.
The fatal shooting of the airman from Georgia was one of a growing list of killings of Black people by law enforcement in their own homes, and it also renewed debate over Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Hundreds of Air Force members in dress blues joined Fortson’s family, friends and others at his funeral.
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Associated Press Writer Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this story.
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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.