Meka Fortson was already brokenhearted after her son, Roger Fortson, a member of the U.S. Air Force, was shot to death by a Florida deputy at his home in May.
Now the grief-stricken mother has to bury another child after her teenager was killed in a shootout Tuesday night at a troubled DeKalb County apartment complex.
“What kind of Mama am I that I have to lose two children within a 90-day period?” Fortson sobbed.
André Fortson, 16, was about to start his senior year at DeKalb’s McNair High School. Things had been tough in their family since Roger’s death, but André was there to look after his mother and little sister, 10-year-old Harmoni.
“André was my comfort,” Meka Fortson said, recalling how he crawled into her bed one night after Roger died and held her until he fell asleep. “He was trying to be strong for me. He was trying to make sure I was OK.”
Credit: Michael A. McCoy
Credit: Michael A. McCoy
André Fortson loved cars and the 4-wheeler his older brother bought him as a birthday gift. He had planned to follow in Roger’s footsteps and enlist in the Air Force after graduation, his mother said.
One man has been charged in connection with André's death, DeKalb officials announced Thursday, but Meka Fortson doesn’t believe he’s the one who killed her youngest son. Police confirmed that Quintavious Zellner, 20, was booked into the county jail on a charge of aggravated assault for his alleged role in the shooting.
Credit: Family photo
Credit: Family photo
Fortson was at her home in Stonecrest on Tuesday when she got a frantic call from her son’s friends. They told her to come quickly to the Summit Hill Apartments along Bouldercrest Road, where the Fortsons once lived.
“They called me and they were like, ‘You need to get here. Your baby got shot,’” Fortson said.
By the time she arrived, her 16-year-old’s lifeless body was lying on a stairwell in the breezeway, she said. Police and paramedics were on scene, but they had arrived too late.
Meka Fortson was told that her son survived for about 15 minutes before he died from his injuries.
“That’s where Roger was trying to get him away from,” said Fortson, who recently moved her family to a safer area. “He just went back to visit friends.”
What makes things even tougher, she said, was that André had planned to spend the summer in Florida with his brother before Roger Fortson was killed. The family contends the deputy got the wrong apartment while responding to a domestic disturbance at the senior airman’s complex. The deputy quickly opened fire after Roger Fortson answered his door while holding a pistol that was aimed at the ground, body camera video showed.
“Eddie Duran just messed up our whole life,” Meka Fortson said, naming the Okaloosa County deputy who fatally shot Roger Fortson on May 3 and was subsequently fired from the department. “My baby would have been down there with his brother on the beach.”
According to his arrest warrant, Zellner is accused of “shooting at the victim as the victim was getting shot at by another group of people.”
The deadly shooting was captured on surveillance video, according to the warrant, which said that Zellner and another person returned fire “believing the victim was shooting at them.” It’s unclear if André Fortson was their intended target.
Credit: Michael A. McCoy
Credit: Michael A. McCoy
Now, it’s just Meka Fortson and her daughter at home after gun violence claimed the lives of two of her sons in a matter of months.
“And the world goes on like this is the norm. This is not normal,” the grieving mother said. “He was 16 ... There has to be change.”
— AJC staff writer Alexis Stevens contributed to this article.
