Panicked Policing
The Okaloosa Sheriff’s Department fired the panicked, frightened deputy who shot and killed U.S. Airman Roger Fortson inside his home. The May 31 firing of deputy Eddie Durand came after Sheriff Eric Aden gave Eddie Durand 28 days of due process.
On May 3, Deputy Durand denied U.S. Air Force senior airman Roger Fortson due process when he shot him dead. It took 37 seconds for Durand, the cowardly cop, to kill Fortson after arriving at his front door. And 35 of those 37 seconds Durand spent hiding from the view of the peephole in Roger Fortson’s front door. When Deputy Durand made himself visible, it was just to kill Roger Fortson.
Durand was dispatched to the Elan Apartments complex after a mischief-making manager called 9-1-1 to file a false police report. Upon Deputy Durand’s arrival at the housing complex, the nosey manager misdirected him to Fortson’s apartment unit. The mischievous apartment manager informed Dep Eddie Durand that two people were cussing and about to fight in Fortson’s apartment unit.
Roger Fortson was home alone. The lying Elan Apartment employee told Durand of a loud argument that had been going on for 20 minutes. She also said it “sounded like it was getting physical” and “it happens often.”
Drop The Gun!
Within two seconds of Fortson opening his door to see who was causing the commotion outside, Deputy Durand panicked and shot Fortson. Drop the gun, Durand yells after shooting twenty-three-year-old Fortson. Fortson was already on the floor bleeding out when Durand started yelling commands.
Fortson had opened his front door holding a handgun. The gun barrel was facing down towards the floor. An Okaloosa internal investigation concluded that “Mr. Fortson did not make any hostile, attacking movements, and therefore, the former deputy’s use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable.”
The Murder of Philando Castile.
The unjustifiable killing is reminiscent of the murder of Philando Castile. On July 06, 2016, a scared 28-year-old Minneapolis police, Jeronimo Yanez, shot and killed Mr.Castile.
Yanez pulled Castile for a broken tail light. When Castile informed Yanez that he had a gun in his car, Yanez panicked, shot, and killed him in front of his four-year-old stepdaughter. Minutes after the shooting, Yanez went into cover-up mode when questioned by St. Anthony Police Officer Tressa Sunde.
Falsifying Official Police Document
Immediately after killing Philando Castile, the scared, cowardly Yanez began fabricating statements to justify murdering Mr. Castile.
“I thought I was gonna die, and I thought if he’s, if he has the, the guts and the audacity to smoke marijuana in front of the five-year-old girl and risk her lungs and risk her life by giving her secondhand smoke and the front seat passenger doing the same thing, then what, what care does he give about me?” Yanez told officer Terresa Sunde.
The Script Is The Same
Thirty-nine-year-old deputy Eddie Durand told the Okaloosa Sheriff’s internal affairs investigators that when Fortson opened the door, he saw aggression in Fortson’s eyes. Durand said he fired because “I’m standing there thinking I’m about to get shot, I’m about to die. Does the storyline sound familiar? Within two seconds of Fortson opening his front doors, Durand saw aggression in his eyes. What color were Roger Fortson’s eyes, Deputy Durand?
On November 12, 2023, a cowardly deputy, Jesse Hernandez, attempted to kill Marquis Jackson, 24. Deputy Hernandez responded to a domestic disturbance involving Marquis Jackson. Hernandez handcuffed Jackson and put him in the back of his patrol unit. Then, an acorn fell near Hernandez. Hernandez started shooting into his patrol vehicle, trying to kill Mr. Jackson. His investigating partner, Sergeant Beth Roberts, also opened fire, attempting to kill Mr. Jackson. The body cam-worn video shows Deputy Hernandez crawling around as if he shot. And he was saying that he was shot.
Hernandez was holding his leg and groaning like a wounded hog. Without any evidence of Mr. Jackson attempting to harm them, Sergeant Beth Roberts and Deputy Hernandez shot 22 bullets at Jackson — trying to kill him. The Okaloosa Sheriff’s Department has since asked Hernandez to leave the department.
They haven’t filed charges against Hernandez. Marquis Jackson has filed a lawsuit to try to get paid. He’s not interested in justice. Most reasonable persons would argue that they owe Mr. Jackson compensation for the terror that he faced.
However, the parents of U.S. airman Roger Fortson are calling for the arrest of former deputy Eddie Durand. They have said the firing of Okaloosa County Deputy Eddie Duran was a “step forward” but that the state should charge Duran for the killing of their son.
