Roger Fortson's Cousin Demands Justice in Airman's Death: 'He Was a Victim'

Heartwarming videos and photos show Roger Fortson throughout his young life dancing, rapping, singing, graduating high school and playing with his younger family members.

These are among the last such memories his family will have of the 23-year-old senior U.S. airman.

Fortson was fatally shot six times on May 3 by a Florida sheriff's deputy who allegedly responded to the wrong apartment for a disturbance call. Okaloosa Sheriff's officials dispute this claim and provided a different narrative of how the shooting unfolded.

"It feels so not real," his cousin LaReine "RiRi" Fortson told Newsweek.

Days after his funeral, she described the young airman as the "perfect cousin" and a "happy man."

The two cousins last saw each other at their great-grandmother's 91st birthday party on March 31. The family threw a big party with dinner and an Easter egg hunt.

He promised her he'd read the book she published a few months ago, "Girls in the Hood: Sunflower Grown From Concrete." They joked about how others were calling it "crazy," but Fortson assured his cousin "art is up to interpretation" and he wanted to give it a try.

RiRi Fortson, 30, never got to hear what her little cousin thought of her book. In fact, the signed copy is still in his car.

"That was the last conversation that him and I had," she said. "He didn't get to tell me what he thought of the book."

How the deadly shooting unfolded

A deputy responding to a disturbance call "reacted in self-defense after he encountered a 23-year-old man armed with a gun," the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

Forston, who was originally from Atlanta, was at his off-base apartment on Racetrack Road when the shooting happened around 4:30 p.m. Fortson was taken to the hospital, where he died.

In bodycam video, the deputy is seen in the apartment complex on Racetrack Road asking, "What's going on."

He asked if a "fight is going on or something." He meets with a woman who said fighting happens "frequently but this time it was sounding like it was getting out of hand."

When the officer asked what door, the woman said, "I'm not sure." She later says apartment 1401 - which was Fortson's apartment number.

"The fact that you would call the cops and you don't know exactly where the noise is coming from is ridiculous," RiRi Fortson said. "You just got a man killed and still haven't come out and apologized and owned up for what you did."

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump played the police radio audio for the audience during a recent press conference. The dispatch officer was unable to provide information beyond that the incident involved a male and female.

Sheriff's records show another unit in the apartment complex, 1412, has had repeated domestic calls, several welfare checks and an EMS call for a "hemorrhage," as reported by the Miami Herald. Deputies were called to the 1412 apartment 10 times since August 2023.

"Roger, he didn't get into anybody's business," RiRi Fortson said. "He was a victim. He was minding his own business, playing video games, chilling with his little dog on FaceTime."

Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden called Crump's claims that the deputy entered the wrong apartment false.

"Police should not be above the law," RiRi said. "There was not one protocol followed in that video."

While the officer was entering Fortson's apartment complex, Fortson was on Facetime with his girlfriend and alone. Fortson had grabbed his gun, which he legally owned, when he heard banging at his door.

The officer fires a barrage of bullets when Fortson opened the door, he immediately falls to the ground.

"You treated him like a suspect," RiRi Fortson said. "You're coming for a domestic dispute; you're not coming for a warrant of murderer. You're coming for a dispute, but you already had your gun drawn. That don't even make sense."

Fortson was eventually taken to a local hospital, where he died.

"The officer didn't even give him a chance," RiRi Fortson said. "He didn't even give him a chance to take a deep breath."

Who was Roger Fortson?

RiRi Fortson grew up going to her cousin's house on weekends and throughout the summer. She called Fortson's mother, Chantemekki, her second mom.

"He was a mama's boy," she said. "You couldn't say anything without auntie getting onto you."

The airman posted to Facebook in 2019 honoring his mother, calling her the "one person that has had our back through the good and the bad" always "with a smile and no compliments."

RiRi Fortson shared videos of her cousin trying to rap and others of him singing along with music at a restaurant. She even taught him how to drive. Her daughter would follow Fortson "around everywhere, she was on his heels."

"He was a sweetheart," she said.

From elementary school through high school, Fortson had As and Bs. He graduated from McNair High School in Dekalb County with honors before he joined the military.

"My little cousin was so smart," she said. "He was great. I really could go on all day about my little cousin."

Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla., according to the Air Force. He entered active duty on Nov. 19, 2019.

He was a combat veteran, taking part in a special operations mission in Syria, according to Dierig. Fortson was awarded the Air Medal with a Combat Device in 2023.

Hundreds of mourners paid their respects for the senior airman at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia on May 17 as he was laid to rest. Over 1,600 people watched the two-hour service on YouTube. Pastor Jamal Bryant said the funeral was streamed globally at all Air Force bases.

A section of the church was filled with military personnel honoring Fortson.

What's next in the case?

There are no updates to the investigation at this time, according to a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"Our investigation remains active as we continue to conduct interviews, collect, process and review evidence," the spokesperson told Newsweek.

The deputy was placed on paid administrative leave.

"They get to do what they want to do all the time. Paid vacation, that's what it is. He gets to spend time with his kids. He gets to taste his wife's cooking, his mother's cooking," RiRi Fortson said. "My cousin can't taste his mother's cooking no more."

She also pointed out the sheriff's office still has not issued an apology.

RiRi Fortson wants the military to step in and help bring justice to Fortson's name. She said President Joe Biden should also look to bring answers to her family and the world.

"I still don't understand how there's not been any charges brought against the officer because everybody knows that he was murdered," she said. "They can't let that slide."

She also called for the Okaloosa Police Department to retrain its staff. She made reference to another officer from Okaloosa County who shot an unarmed Black man just because "an acorn fell on his car."

"How can we trust them to protect anybody?" she asked. "If that happens to him, that can happen to any of the military personnel. That can happen to any of us."

Roger Fortson is not alone

There have been similar cases to Fortson's in recent years.

Botham Jean, 26, was fatally shot in 2018 by a white police officer who mistook his Dallas apartment for her own.

Atatiana Jefferson, 28, was fatally shot through a window at her home by a white officer that was responding to a nonemergency call about her home's door being open.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, was fatally shot inside her family's Detroit home in 2010 by police who burst into the wrong unit.

Breonna Taylor, 26, was killed by police offers who knocked down the door to her apartment while executing a flawed drug search warrant.

"I never thought that it would be my family facing police brutality," RiRi Fortson said.

RiRi Fortson noted that laws have been passed for teachers to bring guns to school for protection or people can carry without a permit. When Fortson, a military personnel with a registered gun, came to his door he should have been seen as one of the people rightfully protecting himself and the country.

"We've been fighting the same fight since slavery," RiRi Fortson said. "We're all human at the end of the day. You can't just terrify everybody like that... They're trying to snatch our lives away."

Going forward, RiRi Fortson is encouraging people to not open their doors, adding that "if they have a warrant, they will come in."

"We just want more respect. We want peace," she said. "We just want racist bias out of the government, period. We can't come together as a people when you have people in power who just love to see other people neglected. It's just wicked... Hopefully this wakes a lot of people up."