ATLANTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A well-known civil rights attorney and the family of a Georgia airman killed by a Florida deputy filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) and the former deputy involved.

Roger Fortson, 23, was killed on May 3 by an OCSO deputy in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The deputy was later identified as Eddie Duran, who was later charged with manslaughter with a firearm.

The complaint in the lawsuit says Duran used excessive and unconstitutional deadly force when he shot the airman seconds after opening his door.

The airman answered the door to his apartment while holding a legally-owned handgun pointed toward the floor. He was killed within seconds, body camera video showed.

According to investigators, Duran was at the apartment in response to a domestic disturbance report that turned out to be false.

The sheriff’s office initially alleged the deputy “reacted in self-defense after he encountered a 23-year-old man armed with a gun,” the sheriff’s office said the day of the shooting.

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden later fired Duran, saying his life was never in danger and that he should not have fired his weapon.

The manslaughter charge is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Duran has pled not guilty to the charge.

The lawsuit also alleges the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department failed to properly train and supervise.

It also claims that staff at the apartment complex provided misleading information that led to the shooting.

Fortson’s family is being represented by Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney who has been involved in a number of cases involving law enforcement killings of Black people, including those of Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Tyre Nichols and George Floyd.

You can read the full lawsuit below:

“This was a catastrophic failure on every level: By a deputy who used unjustifiable force, by a sheriff’s office that failed to train its officers properly, and by an apartment employee whose reckless assumptions set this deadly chain of events into motion,” Crump said in a statement. “Roger Fortson was a proud service member, a loving son, and a young man with his whole life ahead of him. He deserved to feel safe in his own home. Instead, he was killed where he should have been safest, based on hearsay and bias. This lawsuit is about justice for Roger and accountability for those responsible for his needless death.”

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