The Brief A Florida jury found former Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy Eddie Duran not guilty of manslaughter in the 2024 shooting death of U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson. Body camera video showed Fortson answering his apartment door holding a legally owned handgun pointed toward the floor before Duran opened fire. Fortson, who had ties to metro Atlanta, was stationed at Hurlburt Field. His family has also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit over his death.



A former Florida sheriff's deputy has been acquitted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson, whose death in 2024 drew national attention.

What we know:

An Okaloosa County jury found 38-year-old Eddie Duran not guilty Thursday of manslaughter with a firearm, according to The Associated Press. Duran had faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Fortson, 23, had ties to metro Atlanta and was stationed at Hurlburt Field in Florida when he was killed.

What happened

The backstory:

Duran was an Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy when he responded to Fortson's Fort Walton Beach apartment on May 3, 2024, for a reported domestic disturbance.

Authorities later determined the domestic disturbance report was false. Fortson was alone in his apartment and talking on the phone with his girlfriend at the time.

Body camera video showed Duran knocking on the apartment door and identifying himself as being with the sheriff's office. When Fortson opened the door, he was holding a legally owned handgun pointed toward the floor.

Duran told Fortson to step back and then fired multiple times. Fortson later died at a hospital.

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Duran maintained that he acted in self-defense. His attorney, Rod Smith, argued that Duran perceived an imminent threat when Fortson answered the door with a gun and that the deputy acted according to his training.

Duran was later fired after an internal investigation by the sheriff's office determined his life was not in danger when he opened fire.

Prosecutors 

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