In Florida the police have published the images recorded by the bodycam of a sheriff's deputy which they document the accidental and cold-blooded killing of a 23-year-old African-American airman who was at home talking to his girlfriend via Facetime.
The victim is Roger Fortson, a US Air Force soldier, a boy whom the family described as a “patriot who respected authority and hoped to one day buy his mother and his younger siblings a house.” It was the Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy who killed him: after knocking twice on the door and declaring that he was a member of the sheriff's office, the boy opened the door and, after just a second, the officer shot him six shots at point blank range.
While Fortson was on the ground injured, the policeman he shouted “throw the gun” at him. The victim replied “I don't have it”. At the moment there are no other images. County Sheriff Eric Aden showed the short video during a news conference. Aden met the victim's family, but at the moment he did not comment on the dynamics of the tragedy. “What we know,” he added, “is that the deputy identified himself not once, but twice.” «The words uttered by Fortson – he continued – indicate that he was aware that there were representatives of the law at the door and he showed up with a gun in his hand. The deputy knocked on the door and did not cover the peephole or obscure the view in any way.”
But the airman's family claims that the sheriff's men had gone to the wrong address. «The police – they said in a written statement – went to the wrong apartment while Rogers was on the phone with his girlfriend. There was no one else in the house.”