一名前佛罗里达州治安官副手被判定在枪杀一名23岁美国空军士兵一案中不构成过失杀人罪。
A former Florida sheriff’s deputy has been found not guilty of manslaughter with a firearm in the killing of a 23-year-old U.S.
科里·威廉姆斯：这名前佛罗里达州治安官副手被判定在枪杀一名非裔美国空军士兵一案中不构成过失杀人罪。该士兵是在一起家庭暴力报警事件中被枪杀于自己公寓内的。
COREY WILLIAMS A former Florida sheriff’s deputy has been found not guilty of manslaughter with a firearm in the killing of a Black U.S. Air Force airman fatally shot at his apartment during a domestic disturbance call.
周四，奥卡卢萨县陪审团裁定38岁的埃迪·杜兰无罪。杜兰原本可能面临最高30年的监禁。
An Okaloosa County jury acquitted Eddie Duran, 38, on Thursday. Duran had faced up to 30 years in prison.
杜兰为西班牙裔，2024年5月任职于奥卡卢萨县治安官部门。当时他接到报警后赶往位于赫尔巴特机场附近的沃尔顿堡滩市，那里是遇害士兵罗杰·福茨的住所。
Duran, who is Hispanic, worked for the Okaloosa County sheriff’s department in May 2024 when he responded to Roger Fortson’s Fort Walton Beach apartment near Hurlburt Field, where the airman was stationed.
监控录像显示，杜兰敲了敲门后退到一旁，似乎避开了门前的视线范围。他两次喊道：“治安官办公室！开门！”
The video shows the deputy banging on the door and stepping aside, seemingly out of view of the door. Twice he shouted: “Sheriff’s office! Open the door!”
福茨打开门后，手中似乎握着一把手枪，枪口朝下。杜兰大喊：“退后！”随即开枪。接着他又喊道：“把枪放下！把枪放下！”福茨回应道：“枪就在那边。”“把枪放下！”杜兰再次喊道。“我没有枪，”躺在地上的福茨答道。随后杜兰通过无线电呼叫急救人员。
Fortson opened the door and could be seen holding what appeared to be a handgun pointed down toward the floor. The deputy shouted, “Step back!” and fired off shots. He then shouted, “Drop the gun! Drop the gun!”“It’s over there,” Fortson said. “Drop the gun!” the deputy yelled back. “I don’t have it,” Fortson said, lying on the ground. The deputy then called paramedics on his radio.
福茨后来在医院不治身亡。原来，导致杜兰前往福茨公寓的那起家庭暴力报警信息是虚假的。
Fortson later died at a hospital. The domestic disturbance report that led Duran to Fortson’s apartment turned out to be false.
枪击事件发生后，警方称当时福茨独自一人在公寓内，正在与女友通电话。
After the shooting, authorities said Fortson was alone in the apartment and on the phone with his girlfriend.
福茨当时被派往赫尔巴特机场的第4特种作战中队担任任务操作员。他是该中队AC-130J“幽灵骑士”炮艇机机组成员，负责在任务中装填炮艇机上的30毫米及105毫米火炮弹药。
Fortson was assigned as a missions operator to the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field. He was a member of the squadron’s AC-130J Ghostrider aircrew, which loads the gunship’s 30 mm and 105 mm cannons during missions.
州检察官办公室起诉了杜兰，并在一份新闻稿中表示，它接受陪审团的判决，这意味着该州“没有在合理怀疑的情况下证明刑事指控，让每个陪审员都满意”。
The State Attorney’s office prosecuted Duran and said in a news release that it accepts the jury’s verdict, which means the state “did not prove the criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt to the satisfaction of every juror.”
州检察官办公室表示：“我们理解，这一判决将给许多人带来痛苦、愤怒或失望，特别是一些社区成员，他们在全国范围内涉及执法部门的遭遇中看待高级飞行员福特森之死。”“这些反应不应被忽视。”杜兰被解雇，因为治安官办公室的内部调查后来确定杜兰在枪杀福特森时没有生命危险。
“We understand that this verdict will cause pain, anger, or disappointment for many people, particularly some members of the community who view Senior Airman Fortson’s death within a context of encounters nationally involving law enforcement,” the State Attorney’s office said. “Those reactions should not be dismissed.”Duran was fired after an internal sheriff’s office investigation later determined his life was not in danger when he shot Fortson.
杜兰的律师罗德·史密斯表示，枪击事件是警察安全问题，杜兰前往福特森的公寓“根据邻居的投诉了解发生了什么”。
Duran’s attorney, Rod Smith, said the shooting was a police officer safety issue and that Duran went to Fortson’s apartment “to find out what was going on based on a complaint from a neighbor.”
“这一切都不需要发生，”史密斯周五告诉美联社。“（福特森）绝对知道门口有警察。杜兰副警长本人也是一场可怕悲剧的受害者。他遵循了他的训练。那家伙拿着半自动手枪开门。”佛罗里达州执法人员因执勤杀人而被指控是极不寻常的--在福特森被杀之前的过去35年里，这种情况只发生过四次。即便如此，其中只有一名警官被定罪。
“None of this needed to happen,” Smith told The Associated Press on Friday. “(Fortson) absolutely knew a police officer was at the door. Deputy Duran, himself, was also a victim of a terrible tragedy. He had followed his training. The guy answered the door with a semiautomatic pistol in his hand.”It is highly unusual for Florida law enforcement officers to be charged for an on-duty killing — it has only happened four times in the last 35 years before Fortson’s killing. Even then, only one of those officers was convicted.
州检察官办公室表示：“警员们每天都在从事至关重要且往往充满危险的工作，他们理应享有与其他所有被指控犯罪的人同等的无罪推定权及公正审判权。与此同时，使用致命武力的权限必须接受独立审查。向陪审团呈交存在争议的证据正是这种问责机制的一部分，也是维护公众信任的关键。” 福特森遇害事件再度引发了人们对佛罗里达州及其他一些州颇具争议的“自卫法”的讨论。
“Deputies perform essential and often dangerous work every day, and are entitled to the same presumption of innocence and fair process as everyone else accused of a crime,” the State Attorney’s office said. “At the same time, the authority to use deadly force must remain subject to independent review. Presenting disputed evidence to a jury is part of that accountability and is essential to public trust.”Fortson’s killing renewed looks at controversial“Stand Your Ground” laws in Florida and some other states where gun owners can claim self-defense after carrying out shootings.
在这些州，持枪者实施枪击后便可以自卫为由为自己开脱。批评者则斥此类法律为“先开枪后辩解”的法律，认为它们助长了私刑风气，使得持枪者可以肆无忌惮地杀害黑人而无需承担法律责任。
Critics have denounced them as “shoot first” laws that have created a climate of vigilantism in which gun owners operate with impunity in largely killing Black people.
据为福特森家属代理诉讼的知名律师本·克伦普介绍，当时福特森听到敲门声后，携带合法持有的手枪走向公寓门口，结果来人竟是一名警员。开枪的正是这名警员，而非福特森。
Fortson carried his legally owned handgun to the door of his apartment after hearing banging noises that ended up being a sheriff’s deputy. It was the deputy who opened fire, not Fortson.
去年，福特森的家人对杜兰、警长埃里克·阿登及其他相关人员提起了联邦民权诉讼。
A federal civil rights lawsuit was filed last year by Fortson’s family against Duran, Sheriff Eric Aden and others, according to Ben Crump, a prominent attorney who represents the family in the lawsuit.
克伦普在一份声明中说道：“对于所有深爱罗杰·福特森的人来说，这都是一个痛苦的时刻，他的家人更是心碎不已。两年多来，他的家人始终活在失去亲人的痛苦之中，这一判决结果对他们而言实在难以接受。”
“This is a painful moment for everyone who loved Roger Fortson, and his family is heartbroken,” Crump said in a statement. “His family has lived with that loss every day for more than two years, and this verdict is incredibly hard for them.”