FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The mother of a U.S. Air Force airman shot and killed by a Florida sheriff's deputy nearly two years ago says she doesn't want people to forget about her son and is still seeking accountability so it doesn't happen to someone else.
Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was shot to death by a deputy responding to a disturbance call at Fortson's apartment in Fort Walton Beach, where he lived while based at nearby Hurlburt Field. The May 2024 encounter was captured on body camera video.
At a Tuesday news conference in Florida, prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Fortson's family in an ongoing federal lawsuit, said it was his mother's decision to hold the media briefing.
“She is deeply hurt and concerned that time has allowed her son’s name and his life to fade from public consciousness,” Crump said.
“We are not here to litigate facts or comment on ongoing legal proceedings," he added. "We are here because silence, delay and distance have a human cost for families who are left to grieve while waiting for answers.”
Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden fired Deputy Eddie Duran, 38, who fatally shot Fortson after being directed to Fortson's apartment while responding to a domestic violence call. Duran was charged with manslaughter with a firearm, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. It's a rarely seen criminal case filed against a Florida law officer.
Two Florida attorneys representing Duran did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Fortson’s mother, Chantimekki Fortson, said she still has many unanswered questions about the case.
“I need to know what happened to my baby,” she said.
“I have to try to learn how to live life without Roger,” she added. "I don’t think I’m going to ever learn that.”
Crump added that Fortson's mother wants to know: "How could it have been prevented and how can we make sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else’s family?” he said.
Fortson's family is from Georgia. Hundreds of Air Force members in dress blues mourned Fortson at his funeral outside Atlanta.
FILE - Attorney Ben Crump, center left, speaks during a news conference with Chantemekki Fortson, mother of slain U.S. Air Force senior airman Roger Fortson, June 3, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
FILE - Chantemekki Fortson, mother of slain U.S. Air Force senior airman Roger Fortson, holds a photo of her son during a news conference with attorney Ben Crump on June 3, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minneapolis man was arrested Thursday after federal prosecutors said he made online threats against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and against a person who supported ICE during the federal crackdown in Minnesota.
Kyle Wagner, 37, is charged in a criminal complaint with violating cyberstalking and interstate communications laws for allegedly using his Instagram account to dox a “pro-ICE individual” by publishing a phone number, birth month and year, and suburban Detroit address. The complaint says Wagner later admitted that he doxed the victim’s parents’ house.
The complaint also details several online posts in which prosecutors say Wagner threatened immigration officers.
Court records in Detroit, Michigan, where the case was filed, did not list an attorney who could speak on Wagner’s behalf. The complaint was filed on Feb. 3, and unsealed Thursday.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi alleged in a statement that Wagner doxed and threatened law enforcement officers, claimed an affiliation with antifa and “encouraged bloodshed in the streets.”
And at the White House on Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt held up Wagner’s photo at the daily briefing and said such conduct by “left-wing agitators” won’t go unpunished.
“And if people are illegally obstructing our federal law enforcement operations, if they are targeting, doxing, harassing and vilifying ICE agents, they are going to be held accountable like this individual here who, again, is a self-proclaimed member of antifa. He is a domestic terrorist, and he will be held accountable in the United States,” Leavitt told reporters.
President Donald Trump announced in September that he would designate antifa a “major terrorist organization.” Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups and is not a singular entity. It consists of groups that resist fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.
When Trump administration border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday that about 700 federal officers deployed to Minnesota would be withdrawn immediately, he said a larger pullout would occur only after there’s more cooperation and protesters stop interfering with federal personnel.
According to prosecutors, Wagner repeatedly posted on Facebook and Instagram encouraging his followers to “forcibly confront, assault, impede, oppose, and resist federal officers” whom he referred to as the “gestapo” and “murderers.”
The complaint alleges Wagner posted a video last month that directly threatened ICE officers with an obscenity-laden rant. “I’ve already bled for this city, I’ve already fought for this city, this is nothing new, we’re ready this time," he said, concluding that he was “coming for” ICE.
The complaint further alleges that Wagner advocated for physical confrontation in another post, stating: “Anywhere we have an opportunity to get our hands on them, we need to put our hands on them.”
Federal prosecutors didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on why the case was filed in Michigan instead of Minnesota. The alleged doxing was the only Michigan connection listed in the complaint.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota has been hit by the resignations of several prosecutors in recent weeks amid frustrations with the surge and its handling of the shooting deaths of two people by government officers. One lawyer, who told a judge that her job “sucks,” was removed from her post.
Trump’s chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota, Dan Rosen, told a federal appeals court in a recent filing that his office is facing a “flood of new litigation” and is struggling to keep up just with immigration cases, while his division that handles civil cases is down 50%.
Rosen wrote that his office has canceled other civil enforcement work “and is operating in a reactive mode.” He also said his attorneys are “appearing daily for hearings on contempt motions. The Court is setting deadlines within hours, including weekends and holidays. Paralegals are continuously working overtime. Lawyers are continuously working overtime.”
Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker and Nathan Ellgren in Washington contributed.
This story has been corrected to show Wagner was charged with cyberstalking and interstate communications violations, not with threatening to kill ICE agents. It also corrects one erroneous reference to Wagner as Weber.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a photo of Kyle Wagner, as she speaks during a briefing at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a photo of Kyle Wagner, as she speaks during a briefing at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - An FBI seal is displayed on a podium before a news conference at the field office in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
