Washington:

A Black airman in the US Air Force was shot and killed in an “excessive” use of force by a Florida sheriff’s deputy who burst into the wrong apartment, a lawyer retained by his family said Thursday.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented the families of other African American victims of police violence, demanded a full investigation into the May 3 death of Roger Fortson.

Sheriff Eric Aden of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said the deputy was responding to reports of a “disturbance in progress” when the shooting occurred.

Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office releases bodycam footage of one of its officers shooting and killing U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson. LOOK LIKE IT COULD BE STAGE THO . THOUGHTS ? pic.twitter.com/2Ms4SO82mK

— BLACK FLAG (@FlagBlack007) May 9, 2024

But Crump, at a press conference, said “it wasn’t Roger’s apartment that had a disturbance.”

“He was in his apartment, his sanctuary, his castle, where he had every right to be, and they forcefully entered into his apartment,” Crump said, in an “excessive” use of force.

Crump said the 23-year-old Fortson was on FaceTime with his girlfriend, a nurse, when the shooting took place.

She “heard everything,” starting with an “aggressive banging” at the door, he said.

“She talked about how he said ‘Who is it’ and he heard no response,” Crump said, adding that Fortson looked through a peephole but didn’t see anyone.

“He went and retrieved his legally registered gun,” Crump said, adding that he was walking back when the door opened.

“And then she said that she just heard shots,” he said. “He was shot six times.”

Crump demanded a transparent investigation to “do whatever justice will allow for a good man.”

In his statement, Aden said a deputy had responded to “a call of a disturbance in progress where he encountered an armed man.”

“The deputy shot the man, who later succumbed to his injuries,” Aden said, adding that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and state attorney’s office would conduct an investigation.

The United States was rocked by protests in 2020 following the videotaped murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death revived scrutiny of race relations and sparked calls for police reform.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

An investigation has been launched against Seattle police union leaders after an officer was recorded on his body camera laughing and joking about an Indian-origin woman who was killed by a police patrol vehicle in January this year, the New York Post reported. 

In the video released on Monday, Officer Daniel Auderer can be heard discussing the investigation into the accident involving graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula, who was killed by his colleague, Officer Kevin Dave, on January 23. The 23-year-old was a master’s student at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus.

In the clip, Seattle Police Officers’ Guild Vice President Daniel Auderer, in a call with the guild’s president, can be heard saying, “She is dead” before bursting out into laughter and calling Ms. Kandula “a regular person”. He further said, through bursts of laughter, “Yeah, just write a check. Eleven thousand dollars.”

The clip ends with him saying: “She was 26 anyway, she had limited value”, getting her age wrong.

Here’s the footage:

The Seattle Community Police Commission (CPC) issued a statement Monday following the release of the video, calling the conversation between Mr Auderer and his colleague, “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive.”

”The people of Seattle deserve better from a police department that is charged with fostering trust with the community and ensuring public safety,” the CPC added.

Meanwhile, the Seattle police department, which released the video “in the interest of transparency,” said it would not comment on the matter until the Police Accountability Office concludes its investigation into the incident.

Notably, Ms. Kandula, a native of the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, died after being struck by a Seattle police patrol vehicle in South Lake Union. The Seattle police department in a statement said that the officer driving the marked patrol SUV was travelling northbound on Dexter Avenue North when responding with Seattle Fire Department to a “priority one call.” The female pedestrian was crossing from east to west in the crosswalk when the vehicle hit her, according to the statement.

Initially, Auderer reported the officer was driving his car at 50 MPH and was not ”out of control”. However, later, the police investigation found that the car was at 74 MPH when it hit Ms Kandula. According to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, the cause of death was multiple blunt-force injuries.

Jaahnavi Kandula was a student at the Northeastern University campus in South Lake Union and was on track to receive a master’s degree in information systems this December.

A bodycam video released by Ohio police in the United States shows a cop shooting a black pregnant woman as she refuses to leave the car. The incident took place on August 24 and 21-year-old Ta’Kiya Young died after being shot inside her car, as per a report in the New York Post. The police officers were questioning the woman about an incident of alleged theft, the outlet further said.

In the video shared by the Blendon Township Police Department, the woman is seen seated in her black sedan while an officer repeatedly asks her to “get out of the car”. She questions why she should do the same and said “I’m not going to do that.” The cop adds, “They said you stole stuff, do not leave.” Ms Young replies, “I didn’t do s***, the other girls was taking (stuff)”.

One of the officers then stands in front of the car with his gun pulled and his left hand on the bonnet. He screams, “Get out of the f****** car!” Ignoring him, the 21-year-old accelerates and the officer fired a shot. Within a few seconds, the car is seen moving slowly through the parking lot before crashing into the brick wall of a grocery store. The police officers run behind the car asking the woman to “stop the goddamn car!” as they point a gun toward her driver’s side window. The second officer tries but fails to unlock the door. He then smashes the half-opened glass window to gain access to Ms Young, who slumped over the car’s centre console. Officers said they tried to save the mother of two and her unborn child, but neither survived the gunshot. She was due to give birth in November.

Ms Young’s family said in a statement, “Having viewed the footage in its entirety, it is undeniable that Ta’Kiya’s death was not only avoidable, but also a gross misuse of power and authority.” They are seeking a criminal indictment of the officers.

The officers have been placed on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations is investigating the incident.