Attorney Ben Crump holds a press briefing with the family of Airman Roger Fortson after the Florida deputy who killed him was fired.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 I want to start out by welcoming everyone to Mount Zion Second Baptist.
00:06 I serve as the senior pastor of this church, this body of believers.
00:12 My name is Reverend Dr. Addison Kennedy and I am thankful that we are able to open up
00:17 our church to bring awareness and to share our sentiments about the tragedies that we
00:27 have all seen for ourselves.
00:30 And as we are a church house that welcomes the broken hearted, we thought it was only
00:38 right to do this, to be able to share with the mother of Brother Roger.
00:45 And we know that at this time, this is a tough time where she is trying to navigate grieving,
00:53 but she is also struggling because she is also having to fight for her child.
00:59 As she shared with me in my office, how it is her instinctual capabilities to defend
01:09 her child.
01:10 And one of the things that she shared with me also is that if anyone is asking what can
01:16 we do, it's love on your children, love on your babies, because she never thought this
01:21 would happen to her.
01:23 And so with that, I want to share a word of prayer and then I'll bring up my friend and
01:28 my brother, Attorney Ben Crump.
01:30 Let us pray.
01:31 Dear God, we come to you now thanking you for this day.
01:39 God, we come to you broken hearted in need of your love, your peace, and even your hope.
01:49 A hope that consumes us, a hope that restores us.
01:57 Because right now in this day and age, it's hard to find hope.
02:03 Sometimes it's hard to find hope in our homes.
02:08 It's hard to find hope in a grocery store, movie theater.
02:14 It's hard to find hope even in houses of worship.
02:19 So God, we look to heaven for you to give us the hope that only you can provide.
02:25 Now, God, we come to you now asking for you to wrap your arms around this grieving family,
02:33 this grieving mother, knowing that you have the ability to give a peace that passes all
02:39 understanding.
02:41 We thank you now for the peace that is coming and the hope that is on the way.
02:48 In Jesus' name we do pray.
02:49 Amen and amen.
02:51 Let us welcome Attorney Ben Crump.
02:58 Thank you so much, Reverend Kennedy, for allowing us to be in your cathedral for this important
03:06 press conference to give the reaction of what we found out on Friday late in the afternoon.
03:16 I'm Attorney Ben Crump, along with Attorney Natalie Jackson and Attorney Brian Barr of
03:23 Levin Papantonio Law Firm.
03:27 We have the honor of representing the family of Roger Fortson.
03:34 We have present here with us his mother, Ms. Mika Fortson, who will address you in a few
03:44 minutes.
03:46 We also have present with us Reverend Fernandez Anderson and community activist here in Atlanta,
03:57 Marcus Coleman.
04:00 Mika also would like to thank, as always, her home pastor, Reverend Jamal Bryant and
04:09 New Birth Baptist Church, who have been standing with her every step of the way.
04:16 He had his daughters graduating from college, high school.
04:24 He would have been present by her side today, too, so we can never say thank you enough
04:30 to her New Birth family.
04:32 Also Mr. Fortson and her immediate family, who they're just going through it.
04:39 They're just going through it.
04:44 Mika Fortson has always been clear to everybody from day one after she learned about this
04:52 tragedy that she still can't believe.
04:58 She still is in disbelief that her son is dead.
05:04 She has said from the beginning, Cliff Jones, that nobody is going to stain his reputation
05:13 because so often they assassinate our children's character after they assassinate their person.
05:21 She has told everybody from Reverend Bryant, Attorney Jackson, me, the sheriff to his face,
05:31 Sheriff Aiden of the Okaloosa Sheriff's Department.
05:35 She told the generals and the military, everybody, we cannot let them stain his name, his reputation,
05:44 because he was too good of a person.
05:48 She continues with this latest news of the termination to say there still appears to
05:56 her to be an effort to stain his name.
06:01 So that's where we start.
06:05 As we said when we first found the news out that this is a step forward, Deputy Duran,
06:16 the law enforcement officer who shot and killed senior airman Roger Fortson while he was in
06:26 his own apartment, it's a step forward.
06:34 As the sheriff said after the investigation that it was not objectively reasonable for
06:44 him to shoot and kill senior airman Roger Fortson.
06:52 And you look at the video, look at the video for yourself.
06:59 He executed him within a matter of seconds of him merely opening the door.
07:07 He was a licensed registered gun owner in the state of Florida of all places that promotes
07:14 the Second Amendment.
07:17 He was militarily trained to use a gun.
07:20 He was responsible.
07:21 He respected law enforcement.
07:24 He respected authority.
07:25 He was special ops.
07:27 He was an American patriot.
07:30 He had every right to the constitutional guarantees that every American citizen had.
07:36 And so he had a constitutional right to have his registered gun as a registered gun owner.
07:45 And when you look at the video, he kept it in the down position.
07:49 He never raised the gun.
07:53 He didn't even have his finger on the trigger.
07:56 And he was trying to comply with the officer the whole time.
08:02 Even after he shot him six times, point blank range, without giving any verbal command to
08:11 drop the weapon.
08:14 It was while Roger was on the ground dying, he was still trying to comply with the police
08:22 officer's commands.
08:24 The police officer said, "Drop your weapon."
08:28 And Roger's on the ground saying, "I don't have it.
08:31 The gun is over there."
08:33 And he said, "I can't breathe."
08:36 This is still incredibly painful.
08:37 Incredibly painful.
08:38 I would try to see if I can't make it.
08:39 I don't think I can.
08:40 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:41 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:42 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:43 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:44 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:45 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:46 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:47 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:48 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:49 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:50 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
08:51 I'm trying to see if I can't make it.
09:11 This is extremely emotional.
09:15 So I'm going to try to finish my comments so you can hear from Ms. Fortson.
09:20 And then we will move on.
09:25 And so as Mika Fortson told me and Attorney Jackson that this officer is lying.
09:38 When you look at that report and he tries to say that Roger moved his arm and what was
09:48 it Natalie?
09:49 He had aggression in his eyes and he attempted to take a step towards him.
10:05 What was the arm?
10:06 His arm was bent or elbow was bent, canted.
10:11 I mean you look at the video for yourself.
10:15 You look at the video for yourself.
10:18 His mother Mika Fortson said he's still trying to stain his reputation.
10:24 Trying to act like he did something to justify him killing him.
10:30 And there is no justification in doing so.
10:34 And so even though it is a step forward with him being terminated, we are still calling
10:42 on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to bring criminal charges because this wasn't
10:49 mere negligence.
10:51 This was criminal.
10:54 And he should be held accountable.
10:57 And finally as Mika said, as only a mother could say, she said Attorney Crump this isn't
11:05 fair.
11:06 This isn't fair.
11:08 He got a slap on the wrist but he still has his credentials.
11:14 He still has his pension.
11:16 He can go to another police department and get another job.
11:20 He gets to go home and see his family.
11:24 Roger never gets to come home.
11:27 She has to go to the cemetery to see her baby.
11:33 It isn't fair she said.
11:35 It just isn't fair.
11:36 In fact, she's going to tell you where she was at when she got the call that he was being
11:43 terminated.
11:44 And so this is extremely emotional as you all have witnessed here this morning.
11:50 But she's going to do her best as Reverend Kennedy said to continue to defend her child,
11:59 especially his legacy, and not let anybody stain his reputation.
12:06 He was an American patriot.
12:09 And as the report found, there was nothing he did to cause this police officer to be
12:18 justified in shooting and executing him.
12:23 Nothing he did.
12:24 He committed no crime.
12:29 Now you're going to hear from his mother, Ms. Mika Fortson.
12:33 Mika, take your time right now.
12:46 Everybody want my reaction to how I feel about him being fired.
12:52 First of all, since my son was murdered, I never looked at any videos and I didn't even
13:00 read the report that they put out.
13:05 Everything came to me as my family read it or a friend read it.
13:12 I was at Lincoln Cemetery finishing his plat to go on his mausoleum space when I got the
13:18 call.
13:26 That's not justice for me.
13:30 There's so many lies in that report.
13:34 It's so much left out in that report.
13:41 When we did a press release, they had a picture up of my baby.
13:53 Roger is left handed.
13:56 Roger Gunn was in his right hand pointed down.
14:01 I put so many pictures of my baby on social media.
14:07 It would never be aggression in his eyes if he wanted to.
14:11 Roger was helping me raise his 16 year old brother.
14:16 He don't know how to put aggression in his eyes.
14:19 No, I don't feel like that was justice.
14:24 Y'all still staying in his record.
14:28 He's living.
14:29 Why do he still have his credentials?
14:32 Why do he still have his pension?
14:34 You took a whole month to fire him because you waited for him to get another job so it
14:38 won't be on his resume that he got fired from the police department.
14:42 He resigned and came back.
14:45 Let's be clear.
14:46 Don't let this gold teeth fool you guys.
14:48 I'm not dumb.
14:50 I do my homework.
14:52 One thing we say, if you're the smartest person in your circle, get a different circle.
14:56 I'm not the smartest person in my circle.
14:59 I want justice for my child.
15:02 You're not going to throw me a bone.
15:04 Take his credentials, take his pension, let the world know why he resigned and came back.
15:12 Break up charges against him.
15:14 He thought he wasn't going to make it home to his family.
15:17 Guess what?
15:18 This one did it.
15:20 That was his sister's birthday weekend.
15:23 He was fully dressed.
15:25 That means he was on the way out the door to us, but he didn't make it.
15:31 You had military training, so you know what body movement means.
15:37 I got five kids.
15:39 When I go to the school, when they get in trouble, I tell them, "Watch your body.
15:42 Watch your body language."
15:43 They don't have to say nothing, but the way they move, I can tell them if they're disrespecting
15:47 one of their teachers.
15:48 Let's be clear.
15:50 That is not justice.
15:52 That's you thinking you're throwing me a bone and I'm okay with it.
15:54 I'm not okay with it.
15:57 I'm not okay with it.
16:00 The fact that everybody keeps saying that my son was on the floor begging them to help
16:05 him and you think I'm going to be okay with what you guys did?
16:09 No.
16:10 I'm not okay with that.
16:12 To be honest with you, he wasn't begging you.
16:15 He was still fighting for us.
16:17 Like he told me when he was in Kuwait, he didn't die because he was fighting to get
16:21 back to Harmony and Andre.
16:24 You and the lady that came in behind you had time to call the ambulance to get him help,
16:29 but you tried to cover up your mistake, so you let him lay there and die.
16:33 That's not justice for my child.
16:35 I want justice.
16:37 I put everybody out of the house every day to make my house dark.
16:41 They'll pray that his ghost will come in and just tell me bye.
16:45 You think it's justice?
16:47 There will never be justice for taking my baby.
16:50 Ladies and gentlemen, obviously this is so emotional and devastating for his family.
17:02 For justice would be him being charged for the killing of senior airman Roger Fortson.
17:13 That's what his mother wants.
17:15 That's what his family wants.
17:17 They want full justice.
17:19 They don't want partial justice.
17:21 They don't want three quarters justice.
17:23 Roger was an American patriot, and we respect American patriots.
17:30 You took Roger from the world, not just us.
17:35 We want full justice.
17:38 The termination was the first step, but we continue our fervent call for FDLE to bring
17:48 charges in this matter for Deputy Duran shooting and killing senior airman Roger Fortson, an
17:59 American patriot.
18:02 At this time, we will try to take some of your questions if you have any.
18:05 >> Mr. Crump, I want to be clear.
18:10 You're telling me that this officer was able to resign, go to work somewhere else, and
18:18 have a peace of mind?
18:19 >> We don't know if he's gone to work somewhere else, but what we have seen in the past is
18:25 where officers have used excessive force, especially what we've seen when they've killed
18:33 minorities.
18:35 They will be allowed to resign.
18:38 They will keep their credentials.
18:40 They will keep their pension, and then they move to another police department or law enforcement
18:47 agency.
18:48 That was the case with Tamir Rice and many others who were killed.