AFSOC SMA killed by police in home

[uhhello]

AFSOC SMA shot and killed by police.

SMA was in his home, responding to knock at door, apparently no announcement from police, nothing seen out peephole so he rightfully went and got his gun.  While coming back to door, police broke in and shot him.  Bodycam will set the truth free.  Happening too often.  This is from the same department that had the cop who lit up the occupied police cruiser due to acorn falling from tree.  He resigned and is able to work elsewhere.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roger-fortson-us-airman-shot-killed-florida-sheriffs-deputy/

[Lord Ratner]

6 minutes ago, uhhello said:

AFSOC SMA shot and killed by police.

SMA was in his home, responding to knock at door, apparently no announcement from police, nothing seen out peephole so he rightfully went and got his gun.  While coming back to door, police broke in and shot him.  Bodycam will set the truth free.  Happening too often.  This is from the same department that had the cop who lit up the occupied police cruiser due to acorn falling from tree.  He resigned and is able to work elsewhere.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roger-fortson-us-airman-shot-killed-florida-sheriffs-deputy/

Jail. It drives me crazy that we put cops in jail for shitty situations like the George Floyd case, but cases like this slip by, especially if there isn't a race angle to sensationalize.

[Danger41]

10 minutes ago, uhhello said:

This is from the same department that had the cop who lit up the occupied police cruiser due to acorn falling from tree.  He resigned and is able to work elsewhere.

 

Interesting note about this guy was that he was a West Point grad turned Infantry then Special Forces Officer. 

I'm sure this story will be a calm and reasonable discussion focusing on just the facts.

[uhhello]

15 minutes ago, Danger41 said:

Interesting note about this guy was that he was a West Point grad turned Infantry then Special Forces Officer. 

I'm sure this story will be a calm and reasonable discussion focusing on just the facts.

 

https://safe.menlosecurity.com/doc/docview/viewer/docN6A85D2B8223471fe235d52cd8989da0447d05269a55b27c218930be1ee91a36a614dad80d2a5

Deputy Hernandez said, “I've been advised by, um, my attorney here, I, you know, I

know they didn't recover a weapon, or anything like that on the scene, but, um, I'm

confident with what I just told you is what, what happened.”



When asked if he had prior law enforcement experience, Deputy Hernandez said no.



When asked about prior military experience, Deputy Hernandez said he attended West

Point, and was an infantry officer and an officer in special forces for the army for a total

of ten years. Deputy Hernandez said he had two combat rotations to Afghanistan, but

noted as an officer, he was not in direct combat

[uhhello]

Would be curious to know if facetime calls are recorded somehow.

According to apple, metadata is retained but not actual voice/video from the call.  

Edited May 9 by uhhello

[waveshaper]

This video was just released:

Bodycam video shows Okaloosa County deputy shoot, kill Air Force Airman

WARNING -- CONTENT IN THE VIDEO IS GRAPHIC

WATCH: Bodycam video shows Okaloosa County deputy shoot, kill Air Force Airman (weartv.com)

[Smokin]

The drastic rise in no-knock warrants (or apparently warrantless door busting in this case) is appalling.  Also, a great reason to up-armor your front door.  Shocking how easy it is to kick in a front door and it is relatively easy to significantly bolster most front doors.  That would likely give the homeowner a minute to assess the situation a bit better.  Problem is, with police acting like criminals and criminals acting like police, what would be the right thing do to?  You have no idea if the guy kicking in your door is a gang-banger thug looking to rape your wife and kids or only an ATF agent looking for an excuse to discharge his duty pistol.  Either way, there's a solid chance you die.

[uhhello]

30 minutes ago, waveshaper said:

This video was just released:

Bodycam video shows Okaloosa County deputy shoot, kill Air Force Airman

WARNING -- CONTENT IN THE VIDEO IS GRAPHIC

WATCH: Bodycam video shows Okaloosa County deputy shoot, kill Air Force Airman (weartv.com)

Straight to jail.  No warrant nor exigent circumstance.  What the fuck. The Sheriff's explanation of 'not hiding' wasn't shown on the video.  He was out of view until the very end.  Anybody can shout whatever they want outside your door.  Don't open that shit.   

Edited May 9 by uhhello

[Lord Ratner]

31 minutes ago, uhhello said:

Straight to jail.  No warrant nor exigent circumstance.  What the fuck. The Sheriff's explanation of 'not hiding' wasn't shown on the video.  He was out of view until the very end.  Anybody can shout whatever they want outside your door.  Don't open that shit.   

Yup. That was insane.

 

You are allowed to have a gun in your house. I hope that cop spends a long time in prison. He baited that kid to a horrific death.

[Danger41]

It’s insane how 4 minutes after the cop pulls into the parking lot on a seemingly pretty routine call, he’s shot SrA Fortson. What a horrible situation.

[HeloDude]

I trust the worst gas station sushi more than I do Ben Crump.  But that being said, from the looks of the video, that officer was most definitely in the wrong IMO (of course I’ve never been a LEO).  And after a fair trial/if the jury agrees, I hope he goes to prison for a very long time.  RIP to the fellow airman and condolences to his family.

As much as I disdain corrupt and bad law enforcement, I do not envy the job of LEOs.  I can’t even imagine the stress they’re under, but this situation most definitely can’t be the way of doing things.  Personal liberty and freedom needs to be real and not just a cliche.

[Sua Sponte]

Friend of mine is an AC-130 IP. He posted this picture with Fortson with this caption.

“Your true friends will correct the narratives in rooms you’re not present in. 
He was a good kid that served HONORABLY.”

[Sua Sponte]

1 hour ago, Lord Ratner said:

Yup. That was insane.

 

You are allowed to have a gun in your house. I hope that cop spends a long time in prison. He baited that kid to a horrific death.

Hopefully, he thrown into Gen Pop in a Florida prison where his life expectancy as a former cop is very slim. 

[uhhello]

13 minutes ago, HeloDude said:

I trust the worst gas station sushi more than I do Ben Crump.  But that being said, from the looks of the video, that officer was most definitely in the wrong IMO (of course I’ve never been a LEO).  And after a fair trial/if the jury agrees, I hope he goes to prison for a very long time.  RIP to the fellow airman and condolences to his family.

As much as I disdain corrupt and bad law enforcement, I do not envy the job of LEOs.  I can’t even imagine the stress they’re under, but this situation most definitely can’t be the way of doing things.  Personal liberty and freedom needs to be real and not just a cliche.

Yeah.  It's a fine line.  If you're a cop, you have to go into basically almost every situation having a plan to kill/neautralize the person/persons you're dealing with because it happens.  It happens rarely but almost on a daily basis over the whole of the US.  On the flip side, you have a duty to not execute people without showing hostile intent.  One way to do that is to not put yourself in those situations like this guy did.  He was rightfully not standing in the doorway to catch a round through the door but why the urgency to get right up on the situation?  It's monday morning qb'ng but its warranted if you are carrying a gun for the govt and are expected to uphold the constitution and all that jazz.  

There was no call of a gun, no actual violence observed and you don't even know if you're at the right place.  Take a breath and get some distance.  

Race will get brought up in this of course, it had zero bearing and any person standing there in this poor kids shoes, whether white, black, brown, purple haired, or 90 years old would have been aerated by this officer.  

I would imagine he feels horrible and wishes he could do it over again but he's alive and breathing while the kid died at his feet.  

[HeloDude]

8 minutes ago, Sua Sponte said:

Hopefully, he thrown into Gen Pop in a Florida prison where his life expectancy as a former cop is very slim. 

While emotionally this might temporarily feel good, this also isn’t the answer.  Prison shouldn’t be where we send people hoping that they’ll be harmed by other prisoners.  I don’t blame you for saying it as I’m sure I’ve done the same in the past, it’s just that if we’re going to live in a better society then prisons also need to be decently safe for the prisoners.  And that doesn’t necessarily mean they get video games, delicious meals, brand new gym equipment, etc. 

[Smokin]

After watching the video my impression from the first report was that he entered the place was clearly incorrect.  But I think one take away from this is that if I hear someone banging on my door yelling "police, open up" then I'm going to first arm myself assuming ill intent and then call 911 before I get anywhere near the door.  The 911 dispatcher should be able to verify if it is an actual cop outside.  As I said before, an improved front door will buy you some time.

Second life lesson for everyone; don't artificially put a sense of urgency into a situation where none is required.  The cop was responding to call about domestic violence.  If the cop arrived and he can't hear anything happening inside, then the chance of a life threatening situation happening inside is an unreasonable assumption.  Time to wait for backup and take in the situation.  Maybe if he had waited a minute he might have heard laughing or something inside that could have made him realize that his SA was not what he thought it was.

[uhhello]

10 minutes ago, Smokin said:

After watching the video my impression from the first report was that he entered the place was clearly incorrect.  But I think one take away from this is that if I hear someone banging on my door yelling "police, open up" then I'm going to first arm myself assuming ill intent and then call 911 before I get anywhere near the door.  The 911 dispatcher should be able to verify if it is an actual cop outside.  As I said before, an improved front door will buy you some time.

Second life lesson for everyone; don't artificially put a sense of urgency into a situation where none is required.  The cop was responding to call about domestic violence.  If the cop arrived and he can't hear anything happening inside, then the chance of a life threatening situation happening inside is an unreasonable assumption.  Time to wait for backup and take in the situation.  Maybe if he had waited a minute he might have heard laughing or something inside that could have made him realize that his SA was not what he thought it was.

Shack

 

This is one of my favorite follows on youtube.  Him and lackluster.

 

[Lord Ratner]

49 minutes ago, Smokin said:

After watching the video my impression from the first report was that he entered the place was clearly incorrect.  But I think one take away from this is that if I hear someone banging on my door yelling "police, open up" then I'm going to first arm myself assuming ill intent and then call 911 before I get anywhere near the door.  The 911 dispatcher should be able to verify if it is an actual cop outside.  As I said before, an improved front door will buy you some time.

Second life lesson for everyone; don't artificially put a sense of urgency into a situation where none is required.  The cop was responding to call about domestic violence.  If the cop arrived and he can't hear anything happening inside, then the chance of a life threatening situation happening inside is an unreasonable assumption.  Time to wait for backup and take in the situation.  Maybe if he had waited a minute he might have heard laughing or something inside that could have made him realize that his SA was not what he thought it was.

Third lesson, install a camera. They are dirt cheap.

[uhhello]

11 minutes ago, Lord Ratner said:

Third lesson, install a camera. They are dirt cheap.

Yeah, I live in a nicer area and I still only answer the door if I know who is on the other end by verifying through doorbell cam.  

[brabus]

Life in prison - no excuse for that level of fuck up. 

[ClearedHot]

He was a really good dude who was loved by all and the AFSOC community is justifiably upset.   

Being a cop is not easy, daily life or death decisions, and as in this case you will be judged for the rest of your life by the choices you make.  That being said, training and leadership set the tone and this department is floundering at best.  As mentioned above this is the same department that mag dumped a police cruiser with a handcuffed person in the back because a freaking Acorn fell and hit the roof.  This community has crime but nothing like other areas of the country.  In the history of Okaloosa County the department has lost five officers to gunfire, four of those were domestic violence situations, the last one happened 2.5 years ago.  Everything about this call is odd and to some degree the officer was led down a very bad path.  HE certainly had poor training and I beleive in most other areas of the country domestic calls get two officers. 

They won't say who called, but the lady who meets the cop MUST be investigated.  She guides the officer to Fortson's apartment then says she heard "something that sounded like domestic violence TWO WEEKS AGO."  That is NOT exigent circumstances, there is no warrant, there is only hearsay, no probable cause, but the cop starts pounding away and ordering the door to be opened...a complete fail.  Roger has zero duty to open that door and to be clear the courts have ruled that repeated official commands to open a door without a warrant probable cause invoke the 4th amendment.

As far as punishment, Roger did not deserve to die, but he was one of the few that stepped forward and swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, I would hope all of us would honor his service and allow for the officer to enjoy the protections offered by that document.  He deserves due process and if he is found guilty he should be held accountable, but should not be purposely thrown into the general population for "extra" justice.

Rest easy Roger and thank you for your service.

 

 

[Lord Ratner]

Cops need to understand the the risk of death is not a hazard of the job to be mitigated at all costs. Sometimes death is the job. The military has understood this forever, it's the entire concept of "service."

 

At some point the combination of bad training, low staffing, and low resources created a mindset that cops should be held to the same standard as the rest of the population. I think that's silly. If a cop sees someone with a gun, there's no acceptable excuse for killing that person unless they are actively using that weapon against the officers or bystanders. Just holding one isn't enough. Neither is waving it around, if the cops are the only ones at risk.

 

And if somebody is in their own home, and there's no evidence that they are already committing a violent crime, cops shouldn't even have their hands on their guns. The entire paradigm needs to change.

Edited May 11 by Lord Ratner

[busdriver]

Him Him

[Biff_T]

14 hours ago, busdriver said:

Him Him

🍺

[arg]

Years ago the OCSO let high school kids, including girls, do ride alongs on the night shift. Guess what happened? And not just one deputy.