The reason I’m fixated on this one police execution out of so many is that it’s perfectly positioned to have a good chance of a meaningful outcome for the victim’s family, and for the entire movement. The victim did not commit any known crime. The victim was in the Air Force, which will deeply upset the Respect Our Troops guys. It was essentially a violent home invasion, a narrative which most Americans find terrifying and sympathetic. It involves the right of gun owners to carry weapons in their own homes, which brings in yet another special interest group. And of course we’ve recently had a huge national protest movement regarding the murder of Black Americans by cops, and the Fortson family’s lawyer worked on a lot of those landmark cases, including George Floyd’s. If the sheriff’s deputy who killed Fortson can get away with it, anyone can get away with anything. But if we blow this up, this incident could easily end in a murder conviction like Floyd’s did. And the more often there are real consequences, the more nervous cops will get about firing at anything that moves. Floridians, get out on the fucking streets and stay out until this asshole has been arrested.

Bodycam footage of Roger Fortson’s death has been released. Audio implies that the officer was responding to a neighbor’s call about a domestic disturbance; that neighbor can, in my humble opinion, go to hell. The officer knocks on the door twice, announcing himself as being from the sheriff’s office and ordering the door opened. Fortson answers the door holding a handgun down by his side. The officer then yells “step back”, but then immediately shoots him multiple times in the chest before ordering him to drop the gun. Fortson collapses to the ground and can be heard saying “it’s over there, I don’t have it”, because the gun fell out of his hand when he was shot. A small dog is visible in the hallway behind Fortson, fleeing as the shots are fired. No one else is present. The officer tells Fortson not to move, then radios “shots fired, suspect down”, and the video ends.

Figure 1. Roger Fortson at his high school graduation, with family.

Figure 2. Some additional context about the reliability and nerve of the officers on the force that killed him.

Everyone, this is the one single daffodil I’ve managed to grow so far this year. Daffodil, this is everyone.

Roger Fortson's Death

On the evening of Friday, May 3rd, 2024, a 23-year old Black man named Roger Fortson was shot in the chest multiple times by a deputy sheriff, in Fortson's Florida apartment. Fortson died of his injuries shortly after being transported to a nearby hospital. His family has engaged the service of high-profile attorney Benjamin Crump, who specializes in wrongful death and civil rights cases. They will be giving a press conference tomorrow morning. The sheriff's office has yet to put out any information other than a generic "we're investigating" statement. Crump claims that the victim was alone in his apartment speaking to someone on FaceTime when he heard multiple knocks at his door. The knocker would not identify themselves and he did not see anyone through the peephole, so he answered the door carrying a legally owned handgun. (Notably, Fortson was a special operations airman in the Air Force, and would have had firearms training.) The yet unnamed FaceTime witness suspects that the police were responding to a disturbance call to a different apartment in the same building, went to the wrong door, and then became violent when they saw that Fortson was armed.

Details/evidence are still emerging, but are likely to be damning.