For the first time, Chantimekki "Meka" Fortson, the mother of U.S. Senior Airman Roger Fortson, faced the man charged with killing her son at a motion hearing Tuesday.
It was unexpected, said family members. Meka Fortson had to leave the courtroom to compose herself.
Tuesday's motion was to modify the bond order for the former Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy, Eddie Duran, to allow him to leave the Northwest Florida area.
Defense attorneys for Duran said the travel was so Duran could visit his son in college and work temporarily with his family in Oklahoma. Duran's wife works as a travel nurse.
Duran's attorneys said the former deputy was not a danger to the community, and there was no risk of him avoiding trial as his name and likeness were known throughout the country.
Dozens gathered in the courtroom in support of Fortson. After powerful testimony from close friends and family, including Meka Fortson, Judge Lacey Powell Clark denied the motion, saying she had not heard anything compelling enough to modify the original order made by Judge Terrance Ketchel.
The news was a "small step in justice," said Asya Goode, a friend of the Fortson family who was among those who spoke at the hearing requesting Duran stay in Northwest Florida.
"(Roger) didn't receive any warning. … (Duran) received a bond, protection, and a chance to come to this courtroom and ask to be there for his family," Goode said at the witness stand with Roger's younger sister, Harmoni. "(This) is not just a tragedy but a failure of every institution."
Roger Fortson, 23, who was Black, was shot within seconds of opening his apartment door in Fort Walton Beach on May 3, 2024, when Duran was responding to a reported domestic disturbance that turned out to be false.
Duran, 38, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter. In August, Duran was released on $100,000 bond with conditions that he could not possess a firearm or leave the area. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Meka Fortson slowly walked to the witness stand and directed most of her testimony to the judge. She said Roger "broke generational curses" in her family. She asked the judge to revoke Duran's bond.
"My jail is way worse than any he will be in," she said.
For the past year, Meka Fortson said she sometimes blacks out. When she drove her car into her house, she said she didn't feel it.
"I hit the house and people in the car said, 'You hit the house,' and I was like, 'When?' " she said. "I hit a whole house and didn't feel it. I'm numb."
Meka said she was on FaceTime with her son when the shooting occurred. She heard him plead with Duran to help him. She heard him take his last breath.
In the year since her son's death, she's not been able to watch the bodycam footage of the shooting.
"No, I just go by what people say," she said.
After the hearing, people gathered in front of the courthouse, chanting, "Say his name, Roger Fortson." Grassroots organizers with Black Lives Matter and Party for Socialism and Liberation were also there.
Deanna Joseph of Black Lives Matter Grassroots came from Tampa to be in support. She's said it's important to speak up.
The first step was the deputy being charged, she said.
"We want full accountability," she said. "It's time to set legal precedents. We're taking the stand and we're making a powerful stance that this is enough, enough is enough, and we're not going to take this anymore."
Meka Fortson said she doesn't want the case to be her son's race. But she does want closure. And justice.
"I need the world to see what type of man he was," she said. "Not the color he was."
The complaint alleges that Deputy Eddie Duran used excessive and unconstitutional deadly force.
Copyright 2025 WUWF
