Video Released Of Fatal Police Shooting

“Five seconds,” said Blair’s mother, Arlean. “In five seconds, he was dead.” Officers entered Blair’s house Sept. 16 on a drug raid when he stepped into the hall, wielding a golf club, police video shows. Ogden police Sgt. Troy Burnett shot Blair, 45, in the head and chest. The shooting was deemed legally justified. “They could have handled it a lot better,” Arlene Blair disagreed. “They could have Tasered him. They could have done a lot of things other than shoot him.” Investigation reports depict an operation that took some unexpected turns away from protocol before that one explosive moment. Whether Todd Blair was a meth dealer or just a well-connected addict is a matter of some dispute. Investigators from Weber and Morgan counties began watching Blair in 2009 after hearing that he was letting drug dealers live at his house in exchange for their product, according to the search warrant request. There were previous reports of meth traffic to and from the house, near 5900 South and 2600 West in Roy. Investigators gathered evidence that it was Blair’s roommate, Melanie Chournos, buying and selling meth — a factor in the no-knock search warrant that would precede Blair’s death. Detectives later saw Blair leaving for short nighttime trips, which suggested drug trades, they wrote. Two tipsters claimed that they had seen Blair — not just Chournos — handing drugs to customers. Investigators, however, did not report seeing Blair make a transaction. “He was not a dealer,” Arlean …
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