Board Reviewing Death Of Det. Sean Suiter To Vote On What Killed Him
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Members of the Independent Review Board investigating the on-duty death of Detective Sean Suiter voted in closed session Tuesday on how they believed Suiter died.
Board co-chair James "Chips" Stewart said members sought to provide "clarity" in the high-profile case. The public will not know their conclusions for at least another month.
Stewart said the report will go to the commissioner in three to four weeks who will then have ten days to provide feedback.
The Board will incorporate that response before releasing its findings.
The IRB has no legal authority, but its conclusions could sway others—including the medical examiner, who initially ruled Suiter's death a homicide.
The IRB was scheduled to release its report by the end of July, but it was delayed in part by a new forensic test. Stewart declined to elaborate on that testing.
He said the IRB is considering four theories in the unsolved death including murder and suicide.
Detective Suiter was shot in the head with his own service weapon in November 2017. Police said there was evidence of a "brief but violent" struggle and provided a vague description of a suspect who was never found despite a $215,000 reward.
Detective Suiter was on Bennett Place in West Baltimore investigating a triple murder when he ducked into a vacant lot. He made one final, unintelligible radio transmission. At the time of his death, Suiter was separate from his partner who was across the street.
The Board has reviewed surveillance video from the scene that has never been made public. It is unclear if it will be following the release of the findings.
Suiter's family said they do not believe he killed himself. He was found with dirt on his clothing, which is evidence of a struggle.
The IRB has also been in touch with federal prosecutors as part of its investigation.
Suiter was shot the day before he was scheduled to testify in front of a federal grand jury in a police corruption case.
Prosecutors said Suiter was not a target of their investigation, but his testimony was part of the larger ongoing probe into the Gun Trace Task Force.
Detective Suiter previously worked with Sgt. Wayne Jenkins who once headed the GTTF and is now in federal prison.
During federal trials, testimony revealed Suiter and Jenkins were among the undercover officers who chased Umar Burley and Brent Matthews in 2010. Prosecutors said police planted drugs on the men. Suiter unwittingly found the narcotics.
The men were wrongly sent to federal prison. The chase also killed an elderly man, 86-year-old Elbert Davis.
Suiter was never charged with any wrongdoing in the case, but Burley and Matthews are suing his estate and the police department for more than $40 million.
The IRB is being paid by Baltimore City Police for the Suiter investigation.
Former Commissioner Darryl De Sousa, who resigned while under federal investigation for failing to file his income taxes, created the Board during his short tenure leading the department.
Stewart said the IRB recently interviewed former Commissioner Kevin Davis, De Sousa's predecessor, who was in charge during Suiter's death.
Members also interviewed roughly 30 others including a witness already questioned by police. They made three trips to the scene of the shooting as part of their investigation.
The IRB will also issue findings on the police response to the shooting.
Officers were criticized for being too heavy handed—locking down the neighborhood for days and blocking some people from their homes.
Police also at times required valid identification for residents to come and go in the Harlem Park neighborhood.
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