The manslaughter case against the former Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy continued Wednesday with the defendant, Eddie Duran, taking the stand.
Duran, who is charged with the killing of Senior Airman Roger Fortson, served in both military and municipal law enforcement agencies before he moved to Florida in 2019 and joined OCSO.
On May 3, 2024, Duran said he was responding to a call at Elan Apartments with information he was provided — a disturbance that was possibly physical and possibly involving a male and a female. Duran never made contact with Calan Sims, the resident who initially called the front office about noise above her apartment that sounded like two people fighting and possibly getting out of hand.
READ MORE: Day one of the trial
He testified that when he arrived at the complex, he was met by a leasing agent, Keely Rodriguez, who led him to Fortson’s apartment and shared she had heard a disturbance approximately two weeks ago from that general area.
In his cross-examination, Assistant State Attorney Mark Alderman asked about the level of accuracy from third- and fourth-party information. Neither Sims nor Rodriguez saw who was involved in possible disturbances.
Duran directed most of his testimony to the jury, which consists of seven men and one woman. He said that he knocked on Fortson’s apartment after not hearing anything. He moved from the front of the door to avoid the “fatal funnel,” a term used to describe an area within the point of entry where most fatalities occur. After a second knock, Duran said he heard the words “f—and police.” There were a total of three knocks. Fortson’s girlfriend Tytiana Hendrix, who was on FaceTime with Fortson at the time, testified on Tuesday that they couldn’t decipher the first knock.
Det. Peter Hernandez is with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which also oversees the audio/visual enhancements lab for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He testified Wednesday about his background in law enforcement and the process he used to enhance the audio by reducing outside noises such as birds and wind. The defense presented a portion of the body-worn camera footage from Duran with enhanced audio to the jury. The alleged voice between the first and second knock was still muffled and hard to decipher.
Alderman asked Hernandez a handful of times if the human ear could have enhanced the audio in real time without advanced equipment, which Hernandez did not answer.
In his testimony, Duran said he assessed Fortson’s body language as he opened the door after the third knock. He said Fortson seemed “aggravated and frustrated.” Seeing a gun in Fortson’s hand, his immediate action was to “react, draw, and shoot,” he said.
“I thought I was dead,” he said.
Duran shot Fortson within a couple of seconds of him opening the door. He said that his training dictates that he should “shoot until the threat is gone,” which is why he shot five times. After he called out “shots fired” on the radio and called for EMS, he stepped outside, hit the wall and said, “f---.”
“It hit me that this is the worst thing that could’ve happened,” Duran said.
In cross-examination, Alderman asked whether Duran considered that the victim in the possible disturbance was a male and if they themselves had the right to defend themselves. The victim in a disturbance call could be holding a gun, he said.
Duran said that in the domestic disturbance calls he’s responded to throughout his career, he had not encountered someone holding a gun.
Duran said he witnessed Fortson holding his gun in a “canted” position. He demonstrated holding his hand out at about a 45-degree angle. In body-worn camera footage, Fortson is seen holding the gun pointed at the ground by his side. Duran said Fortson did not comply when he told him to “step back.”
The defense also called Duran’s then-patrol supervisor, Sgt. Casey Duh, who is still employed with OCSO. He said the call Duran received could’ve been a “possible call of domestic abuse.”
Other defense witnesses included consultants in law enforcement and firearm safety, who also testified in Duran’s immunity case last month. Consultants were each paid upwards of $10,000 to review the case and provide their assessments.
Massad Ayoob, a firearms expert and self-defense instructor with more than 40 years of law enforcement experience, said the location of the apartment in the building and lack of exit for Duran gave him little time to assess.
Alderman countered that Forston had a similar issue. There was no back door exit, and the apartment is on the fourth floor.
“It appears that way,” Ayoob said.
Lewis Kliem is chief consulting and communications officer for an organization called Force Science, which provides research, training, and consulting services for law enforcement professionals.
Kliem was previously retained by OCSO to review the incident. OCSO fired Duran on May 31, 2024, after an internal investigation. His testimony was focused on the overall training of law enforcement. Kliem said there was not a universal reaction or response time that law enforcement has when it comes to assessing a threat.
“They are not trained to wait for an assault to occur,” he said.
The last defense witness was Kevin Williams, a retired officer from the Orlando Police Department with 20 years of firearms training. He testified that someone with a gun drawn has an advantage over someone with a holstered gun. When asked about using other tactics such as mace or a Taser in close range, he said neither is recommended.
The defense rested its case after its witnesses. The trial continues Thursday at 9 a.m.
