League City officers kill sword-wielding man
Police were serving warrant at a home when victim assumed ‘aggressive posture’
League City police shot and killed a man wielding a samurai sword while they were serving a warrant for his stepson Tuesday morning, authorities said.
Officers with the League City Police Department Combined Agency Response Team and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went to a home on the 300 block of Morningside Drive around 5 a.m. to execute a narcotics and weapons search warrant, according to Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset.
As the officers were searching the home, one officer entered a bedroom to find Roger Fortner, 49, wielding a samurai sword “in an aggressive posture.” One officer fired a “bean bag,” or flexible baton round, at Fortner, who would not comply with orders. A second officer fired several shots from a rifle, killing Fortner at the scene. Trochesset said he did not know how many shots were fired, and he is still waiting on the autopsy report.
Officers who were involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, said Kelly Williamson, a spokesman for the League City Police Department. The Galveston County Sheriff ’s Office is also investigating the shooting.
Fortner’s stepson and wife were in the house at the time of the shooting, Trochesset said. The stepson was the subject of the search warrant. Both Fortn-
er’s wife and stepson were brought in to the League City Police Department for questioning. It is not yet clear if the stepson was charged with any crime related to the search warrant.
The home on Morningside Drive is in a quiet residential neighborhood just behind Hall Elementary School.
Some neighbors were troubled by the sight of police and SWAT teams storming into their otherwise peaceful community.
Gail Stiteler, a resident of the subdivision since 1983, takes her morning walk through the neighborhood every day, memorizing her route so she can hit exactly 3 miles.
On Tuesday morning, she saw the yellow crime scene tape blocking her from entering Morningside, a sight that “threw me for a loop,” she said.
“I walk past those houses every day, and I’ve never seen anything that stood out like, ‘Wow, I should be more aware,’” Stiteler said.
“I feel totally blindsided by this.”
Stiteler, 73, said that in the 35 years she has lived in this neighborhood, she has always felt safe.
She said it was unsettling when she learned someone had been shot and killed.
“If I could get hold of those people that do these things, that bring this kind of activity into our lives,” she said, balling her fists, “I would have something to say to them.”