Prosecutors find officer justified in deadly shooting of Anchorage woman during SWAT standoff

Anchorage constabulary astatine an East 20th Avenue location connected Thursday, June 20, 2024, a time aft a standoff during which Lisa Fordyce-Blair was killed by police. (Matt Faubion/Alaska Public Media)

An Anchorage constabulary serviceman will not look criminal charges successful nan fatal shooting of a female successful June. 

Prosecutors pinch nan authorities Office of Special Prosecutions wished that Sgt. John Butler was legally justified successful shooting and sidesplitting 58-year-old Lisa Fordyce-Blair aft a lengthy SWAT standoff astatine her home, according to an 18-page missive released Tuesday. 

Fordyce-Blair is among 4 group killed by Anchorage constabulary this year. The authorities has truthful acold investigated 3 of nan shootings and cleared each of nan officers.

The state’s missive says astatine astir 4:40 p.m. connected June 19, officers were called to Fordyce-Blair’s location successful Muldoon aft a neighbour reported that she had yelled “racial epithets” astatine him and his boy and threatened them pinch a firearm erstwhile they were mowing her lawn. The man told officers that he and his boy had mowed her section for 5 years, and “this was not normal behaviour from Ms. Fordyce-Blair,” according to nan letter. 

Officers arrived connected segment soon after, and for much than 4 hours, officers made announcements complete a PA strategy to effort to deescalate nan situation, nan missive says. At nan aforesaid time, an APD negotiator attempted to interaction Fordyce-Blair by phone, leaving respective sound messages and sending aggregate matter messages to effort to get her to surrender voluntarily. 

The missive says that a SWAT squad was called erstwhile Fordyce-Blair did not respond to nan negotiator and nan PA announcements. They began to occurrence “knock knock” rounds, described arsenic non-lethal foam rounds designed to get personification to exit a building, astatine nan broadside of Fordyce-Blair’s location and utilized them to break her model to let a drone to alert successful and supply a video provender to nan officers. The negotiator successfully contacted Fordyce-Blair connected nan telephone aft nan rounds were fired, and said pinch her for astir 45 minutes, according to nan letter.

Fordyce-Blair fired 2 to 3 rounds astatine nan drone, causing it to fall, though it continued to supply a video feed, nan missive says. Officers besides began deploying chemic agents into nan location successful bid to thrust her retired of nan house. The missive says that officers reported proceeding shots being fired from wrong nan home. At astir 9:39 p.m., nan missive says that Fordyce-Blair opened her car shed door. Officers opportunity she did not comply pinch orders to driblet her weapon.

In an question and reply noted successful nan letter, Sgt. Butler said he approached Fordyce-Blair arsenic she was successful nan garage, and she started to raise a handgun towards him. Butler responded by shooting Fordyce-Blair successful nan head, sidesplitting her. 

“Sgt. Butler was lawfully capable to usage deadly unit against Ms. Fordyce-Blair because she had precocious committed a felony battle against a personification and nan unit utilized was basal to extremity her erstwhile she opened nan car shed doorway pinch a weapon successful her manus while appearing to scope retired nan location of officers,” nan missive said. 

The shooting was not captured connected assemblage cameras because nan SWAT officers were not wearing them. Then-Anchorage Police Chief Bianca Cross said soon aft nan shooting that SWAT squad members were incapable to get nan cameras to fresh connected their gear. Police Chief Sean Case, appointed by Mayor Suzanne LaFrance successful July, said that SWAT squad members would beryllium equipped pinch assemblage cameras moving forward. 

State prosecutors besides deemed that officers were justified successful nan fatal shootings of Kristopher Handy successful May and Tyler May successful early June. 

Anchorage constabulary are still investigating nan fatal Aug. 13 constabulary shooting of 16-year-old Easter Leafa. Once that investigation wraps up, nan shooting will beryllium investigated by nan authorities Office of Special Prosecutions, and past by a third-party astatine nan bid of nan mayor.