On a late Monday morning in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the life of 36-year-old Black male, Telly Tremaine Blair, was tragically cut short. On August 9, 2021, at approximately 11:08 a.m., Blair was seated in the driver's seat of his car at an Amstar gas station on West Broadway Avenue when he was shot multiple times in the chest. Emergency services were called to the scene, and though a nurse who was present attempted to render aid, Blair was bleeding profusely and unconscious.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead less than an hour later. The cause of his death was determined to be multiple gunshot wounds, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
The investigation into the shooting soon focused on a teenage suspect. Surveillance video from the gas station captured a male walking by Blair's car and motioning to him before entering the convenience store. Moments later, the same individual exited the store, approached the driver's side of Blair's vehicle, and fired several shots into the car. Weeks after the incident, confidential informants provided crucial information to the Minneapolis police. One informant revealed that a teenager, who lived near the gas station, had confessed to the shooting. Another informant identified the same teenager as the shooter and disclosed a chilling detail: the suspect had allegedly asked Blair where he was from just before opening fire.
Based on the information from informants and a match to his likeness from the surveillance footage, police identified the suspect as 17-year-old Khalil H. Shabazz. He was arrested at his home, where investigators found clothing that appeared to match what the shooter was wearing in the video. Although Shabazz was a juvenile at the time of the killing, a judge ordered that he stand trial as an adult. He was charged with one count of intentional second-degree murder.
In June 2022, Khalil H. Shabazz pleaded guilty to the second-degree intentional murder of Telly Blair. In August of that same year, the now 18-year-old Shabazz was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court to 22 ½ years in prison. With credit for the time he had already served since his arrest, it is expected that he will serve approximately 14 years of his sentence in prison, with the remainder to be served on supervised release. The motive for the shooting was not publicly detailed in the available information.
