The family of an African-American member of the US Air Force killed last week by police during a raid on his apartment in Florida (southeast) demanded justice on Thursday.
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Roger Fortson, 23, was killed on May 3.
Alerted to an incident in progress, local police responded, Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said in a statement Thursday. At the scene, a police officer “found an armed man and shot him,” he added, specifying that the man then died from his injuries.
But lawyer Ben Crump, very involved in cases of police violence against black people, who represents the young man’s family, affirmed during a press conference that the police on Thursday had “barged into the wrong apartment” .
AFP
Roger Fortson was alone at home on a video call with his girlfriend when there was a violent knock on his door, said the lawyer, stressing that she had witnessed this “cascade of tragic events”.
After unsuccessfully trying to identify the person at the door, Roger Fortson went to get his pistol, then, as he returned to the living room, the police burst into the apartment and shot him six times , according to his account.
The sheriff announced in his press release that he had placed his agent on administrative suspension and specified that the Florida police and the state attorney’s office would investigate separately. He called on the population to be patient until light is shed on “this tragic event”.
