Authorities in Florida, USA, this Thursday released footage recorded by a police body camera, which shows how the officer knocks on the door and shoots as soon as it is opened by a black man with a gun in his hand. down. The victim, a 23-year-old Air Force pilot, died in hospital.
The incident occurred on May 3 and, according to New York Timespolice officer was investigating a report that an argument had occurred at Roger Fortson’s apartment 1401 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
The pilot’s family guarantees, in a statement quoted New York Times, that the police “went to the wrong apartment.” And after seeing the body camera images, he wonders why the agent didn’t ask Roger to drop the gun before shooting.
The family’s attorney, Ben Crump, said his clients’ son was on a video call with his girlfriend at the time of the shooting and that he was the only person in the apartment, contradicting a complaint received by authorities that would be made by the woman, who has not been identified. The family also stresses that this is an “unjustifiable murder.”
“For some reason he [o agente] I thought that [o Roger] He was a bad man, but he was a good man. He was an exceptional person,” said the lawyer for the pilot’s family, quoted by the publication. The keeperwhich also emphasized the police officer’s responsibility to ensure they were in the correct apartment.
According to the lawyer, the US Air Force pilot carried a weapon and therefore used it against “unreasonable searches conducted by the police.”
Authorities are investigating the case.