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[Music] thank you [Music] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host
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Nick and with me as always is a man driving a gravy train with biscuit Wheels he is our captain thank you thank
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you thank you it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening and thanks for telling a
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Bills news that's right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] now about a full week a full week since Sean Suiter was murdered and still the
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crime scene at Schroeder invented places in West Baltimore it remains taped off at this hour ABC 2 News investigative
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reporter Brian cubler has been on the story and joins us live right now from Baltimore Police Headquarters tonight
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with a continued search for as soon as killer and those inside and outside the department mourning his loss Brian yeah
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Jamie Sean Suiter was only in the homicide unit of the police department for about two years but in that short
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time victims families became friends and Friends became families exactly a week later now in this part of
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Harlan Park in West Baltimore remains a crime scene an active one as forensics were called back out just today but
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while technicians Revisited suitor's scene he was more than um police officer Kevin Fenwick felt
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compelled to meet us at his son's crime scene Kendall Fenwick you might recall was murdered two years ago after
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erecting a fence around his Northwest Baltimore home to keep the drug dealers out a good hard-working honest family
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man his killing lingers just a little longer in The Barrage of what can be Baltimore's violent crime statistics a
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cold-blooded killing that would fall to a brand new homicide detective at the time Kendall Fenwick was detective Sean
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suter's first ever case and first ever closure he brought Comfort to my family knowing that we had this person behind
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bars and he always told me I would be there for you and he has and he has a true friend
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he has but it didn't stop there through the next two family to Fenwick in all of his
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relationships that was just simply the detectives ammo he was a special very very special man
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my brother and I I love him forever his colleagues say much the same thing detective Eric Perez came up in the
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department with suitor yesterday telling us it's all that he can do from falling
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apart balancing such pain with the drive for justice I have to battle um the emotion while sticking to to the
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mission which is which is fine and who who killed Sean so you have to really um know when to turn that switch on and off
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so that you can stay on course and and stay focused on what needs to be done the concept of closure is
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subjective it's personal but there is perhaps no one better equipped to Define it than a homicide detective and the
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family member of a murder victim for Fenwick he could only hope the family of the men who worked so hard to give him
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his closure is afforded the same Comfort it's terrifying it is it's it's speechless speechless just trying to
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hold myself together now but it's speechless speechless meanwhile in just a few moments here the
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Baltimore City Police Department is planning to brief the media of an update in this investigation that is now as you
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said Jamie exactly one week old tonight we will bring this press conference to you live as it happens here from City
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police headquarters for now we're live at City Police Headquarters in downtown Baltimore this evening Ryan Keebler ABC
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2 News [Music] foreign on November 15 2017 detective Sean Suter is 43 years old and an 18-year veteran of the
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Baltimore Police Department in Maryland sooner started out as a Beat cop and worked his way up through the ranks to
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earn his detective badge he was assigned to the homicide division back in 2016. we should mention
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2017 was the third straight year in which Baltimore had more than 300 killings so almost One A Day In fact the
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murder rate was so out of control in 2018 City organizers began holding 72-hour cease-fire weekends a time
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period when it is not okay to shoot someone busy homicide detectives in Baltimore PD
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traditionally work in pairs and the detectives do not wear a uniform but rather a suit and tie I'm sure
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everybody's familiar with this this seems to be the protocol most cities furthermore unlike Baltimore police
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officers detectives do not wear body cameras on November 15th detective Suitor was not working with his regular
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partner Suitor was paired up with a different partner for the day and the two headed out to follow up with a
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possible witness on a triple killing from 2016. the area they went to was the 900 block of Bennett place and what the
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Baltimore Sun called quote a notoriously violent section of the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore detective
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Suitor was familiar with the Harlem Park neighborhood as he was a patrol officer
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there at one time according to the Sun newspaper the facts of the event is this detective Suitor and his partner saw a
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man acting suspiciously in a vacant lot the two detectives split up to cover different exits of the block and then
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detective Suitor was shot ER suffered one gunshot wound to the head and was rushed to the University of
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Maryland Shock Trauma Center the BPD confirmed the shooting at 5 42 PM in an email to the media stating the
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police department was gathering details regarding the police involved shooting that occurred at approximately 4 30 pm
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at 9 00 PM detective Suitor was in critical condition a news conference featuring Police Commissioner Kevin
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Davis outlined the details of the incident without releasing the detective's name according to Davis the
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detective approached a man engaged in suspicious behavior in an attempt to speak with him when he was shot
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Davis described the attack as spontaneous he continued our 18-year veteran homicide detective was shot in
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the head the detective was in very very grave condition and he continues to fight for his life
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sadly the detective Sean Suter died the next day on November 16th in the presence of his wife and five children
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doctors desperately tried to save the life of the respected officer they knew personally but they were unsuccessful
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commissioner Davis released Sean suter's name to the public in a news conference
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announcing his death told the media that police found evidence that the suspect was injured
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but declined to elaborate on this statement he said police were searching emergency
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rooms and doctors offices for anyone with any unexplained injuries the Maryland state flag was lowered to
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half staff and within days a reward of two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars was offered for information on the case
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in the wake of detective suitor's murder officials from all over Maryland declared that they would make it their
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mission to find detective suitor's killer we will find the person responsible for this ridiculous absurd
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unnecessary loss of life said commissioner Davis he described detective Suitor as a
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wonderful detective husband father and friend Davis employed citizens to help the police bring this heartless ruthless
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soulless killer to Justice he asked the immediate investigation so Captain for hours after Suitor was shot police
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maintained a wide perimeter around the 900 block of Bennett Place while officers checked nearby homes for the
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shooter police helicopters circled overhead looking for suspects the day after the shooting police fanned out
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across the neighborhood knocking on doors to ask neighbors if they knew anything about the shooting or the
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shooter they corridored off the whole block questioning all the residents and looked in all of the homes there
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residents expressed concern that they were often detained when coming and going regardless of probable cause
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required to show ID and Pat it down this aggressive zoning off of the area was later declared by the media and public
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to be unconstitutional and this lasted for six days after the shooting the lockdown caused complaints from
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residents to say the very least which is this is a sticky situation because you don't even these rights to be infringed
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on but at the same time you have an officer that was killed in your area trying to protect and serve your area so
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it's like you should be a little more Cooperative possibly with this investigation I think describing this as
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a sticky situation is spot on by you Captain good job by you it is very difficult and it's difficult for me to
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have an opinion on this because on one side I want to say you know what they're looking for a cop killer and we should
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do everything we can to find whoever killed this police officer right but at the other hand it's it's tough because I
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don't live in that neighborhood you know I've never had my neighborhood blocked off for six six days and be patted down
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and asked to show ID every time I come and go from my home in my neighborhood that's infringing on your rights so I I
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think you're allowed to have an opinion it sucks on both sides yeah it's yeah it's a terrible situation so who was
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Sean Suiter well suitors colleagues remembered him as a Dependable investigator who was often smiling and
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that's one thing that in the research here that I found time and time again everybody said how much this guy was he
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was always smiling always kind of in a good you know good mannered guy good-natured guy Jonathan Jones suiter's
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regular partner said Suitor loved the Dallas Cowboys he was known amongst detectives as face on the street
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citizens knew him as yeah that was his his nickname but I guess citizens on the street called him scar now both of this
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referred to a facial scar that uh Suiter had and when you put them together you get what Scarface yeah that would have
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been the cooler name Rick Willard a retired officer said he meaning Suitor is one of the best officers I've ever
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worked with and it breaks my heart former Baltimore prosecutor Jeremy Eldridge called Suitor a man with
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Integrity he continues Suitor was one person you would always count on he worked tirelessly to put together very
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well thought out cases Suitor was born and raised in Washington DC he enlisted in the Army After High School and served
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until 1998. he joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1999 but was called back to serve in Iraq as a member of the
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Army Reserves from 2005 to 2007. at the time of his death he lived in York County Pennsylvania about an hour's
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commute to Baltimore he was married and had five children it seems like a more common thing lately that these cops
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don't live in the areas that they work in they'll actually live an hour or more away
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yeah and here's the thing is I I know that in some areas they're required to live in the areas that they serve or
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within a certain mile radius of that area that area of the country DC Baltimore heavily congested and you also
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have high crime rates in those cities as well and then the nicer neighborhoods extremely expensive to live in so right
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I don't know that his salary would provide him a good home in a safe neighborhood in that area I just want to
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warn everybody to pay attention because the information that we're going to give
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you it kind of trickles out over time but you don't want to forget about the information that happened beforehand
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that that's going to play a key role in this case and I'm telling you the more we dive into this case the more that
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you're going to think we made this up yeah I mean this case will blow your mind well in the information coming out
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in a trickle is is exactly right because from the get-go the police commissioner
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he held an unprecedented number of news conferences about the shooting actually there were seven press conferences in
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the first 10 days of the investigation yeah and some have wondered why so many press conferences was this an attempt to
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control the narrative or the release of information about what happened so here are the details that were officially
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released by the Baltimore Police Department concerning the shooting death of detective Suitor this is in the first
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10 days Suitor was found in the vacant lot of Bennett Place lying face down police recovered detective suitors
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service weapon at the scene it was found underneath his body Suitor had his police radio clutch in his left hand
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more than one shot had been fired from suitor's gun detective Suitor had been killed with his own weapon I'll repeat
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that detective Suitor had been killed with his own weapon there was evidence that a struggle occurred the detective's
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killer might have been injured in the course of that struggle one strange turn of events also came to
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light detective Suitor was not transported to the shock trauma center via ambulance instead officers at the
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scene put him in a police vehicle and drove him to the hospital which was less than a mile away this presumably to save
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time instead of waiting for an ambulance right now unbelievably while enroute this police vehicle got into an accident
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colliding With a Civilian car Suter was then transferred to an ambulance at that
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scene of the accident and then taken to the shock trauma center let's try to get an understanding of
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exactly where detective suitor's body was found he lay on the ground in a vacant lot
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between two houses from photos of the scene you can see it looks like almost an Alcove between buildings windows in
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the surrounding houses Overlook the lot they appear to be boarded up so there's a lot of vacant homes in this area the
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area has been described as a place where drug addicted homeless and squatters would hang out this is an L-shaped lot
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that is open to Bennett Place on one side of the lot into Schroeder Street on the other end of the L-shaped lot so
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there are two ways to access this vacant lot within days of the shooting a makeshift Memorial of flowers American
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flags and mementos sprung up on the corner of the vacant lot in honor of Sean Suiter detective suitors autopsy
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was completed within five days of the killing the autopsy officially ruled that his death was a homicide Baltimore
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Police investigators returned to the scene of the shooting to investigate further based on what they learned from
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the autopsy about the bullet trajectory police said they found additional significant evidence which turned out to
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be the Fatal bullet it was lodged in the dirt in the vacant lot and it had detective suitor's DNA on it the
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discovery of this bullet in the lot by evidence text appears to some to have been somewhat staged the discovery
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happened in front of rolling TV news cameras with what seemed like deliberate displays of the bullet police disclosed
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that in total three shots were fired from suter's gun and one of these was a close contact gunshot wound to suiter's
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head police said they found no DNA or other evidence at the scene that might lead them to the perpetrator but earlier
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reports stated police found evidence that the perp was injured at the scene okay so we have a situation
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where the law enforcement officer detective shooter is shot in the head there's three bullets because there's three
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shots correct the bullet that hit his head that hit the detective Shooter's head
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they possibly when they find the bullet find this and the media's there so they're going to be holding this up
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we found the bullet right okay well and the reason why some have stated that they believe it might be
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staged is that so the autopsy it took five days they had remember they blocked off that whole area for six days total
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after the shooting and what what the people in the public are going well you had this area blocked off for all this
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time and you didn't find the bullet until after the autopsy five days later and then when you do find it you're kind
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of like I mean it prayed in around well yeah you're almost holding it up like some
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kind of trophy or something like that that's very strange yeah but the other key thing there is that they state that
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no DNA or other evidence at the scene might lead them to find the perpetrator but we have an earlier statement by
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police that stated they found evidence that the perp was injured at the scene so that's conflicting things but they
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clean it up a little bit with what they find to be good evidence to steer them in the right direction so
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what they found originally that may have led them to believe that the perpetrator
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was injured at the scene this turned out to be two blood stains found in the vacant lot one of the blood samples was
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determined to have been from an animal and one was from a local junkie who was interviewed and ruled out
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so the theory that the suspect had been injured in the struggle turned out to be
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baseless Baltimore Police Department they had no suspects in the killing of one of their own well we don't need
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blood stains or puddles of blood in this alley what we do have is we do have two
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bullets that did not hit detective shooter so were those bullets when we look at those bullets do they
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did they hit anybody do they have any DNA evidence on them and I think this would tell us if there was somebody
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injured in the attack on detective shooter yeah and you brought that up at the perfect time because the earlier
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information that was coming out was just very it was a little vague stating that
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there was more than one shot fired from detective suitor's gun it was later determined that three shots were fired
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from suitor's own service weapon and this came about when commissioner Davis announced that three shell casings were
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recovered that ballistically matched suitor's gun he pointed out that these findings did not necessarily mean that
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no other gun was present or was fired but the casings were found very close to suitor's body police also pointed out
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pointed to a scuffle mostly because dirt was found on suitor's suit so the conclusion was that detective Suitor was
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attacked and overpowered by someone his gun taken or at least controlled and three shots fired with one hitting
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Suitor fatally in the head now you were talking about that him and his partner were tracking down a guy that was
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suspicious in the area and the report says that they saw someone behaving suspiciously in the area and Suitor
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decided to approach this individual right so then I'm assuming at that point that this is our suspect
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so do we have a any ID of this guy do we have any a description of the potential suit
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shooter or someone who overpowered Sean Suiter right well see this is difficult because like you said we're going off of
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probably just a description of this suspicious person there doesn't seem to be any witnesses that actually saw the
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shooting or the scuffle take place right but we do have his partner that saw this
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suspicious individual mm-hmm in the beginning and this is interesting we also have Baltimore Police Department
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they're refusing to release the detective's name that was working with suitor that day it took a while for that
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information to come out and they also refused to say what he had told investigators other than the suspect was
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a black man wearing a black and white jacket well right but I'm sure that narrows it down quite a bit right but I
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think what they're assuming there is hey we have one suspect right now that's probably the guy and then we have one
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eyewitness and now that Suitor is dead we don't want to release this information we
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don't want to release what he has told us because we don't want a hit put out on this guy you know I mean because
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that's your only eyewitness well two weeks after suitor's death The Baltimore Sun released the name of the
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detective working with suitor that day and this is detective David bomenka not much is known about this Detective from
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what I could find in the papers but reportedly he and detective Suitor worked at least one case together
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previous to this shooting this detective was a 10-year Baltimore Police Department veteran then additional
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information came out commissioner Davis stated that on the day of the shooting bemenka and Suitor were canvassing the
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900 block of Bennett Place while investigating a 2016 triple homicide case now this case was suitor's case
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that they were working not bomenka's case they had no particular person of interest in their focus on that day for
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that outing according to the commissioner bemenka was also investigating a separate murder case
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that he was staffed on the way this reads to me Captain is that they are in this area and they're both
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working these cases together by this point because they've now been paired up right you know detectives thank God they
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get a day off like everybody else apparently it was suitor's partner's day off apparently he and bomenka were
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paired up the day before as well right and when you say he you're talking about Suitor so Suitor and bobenka work
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together this would be the second day in a row correct that's my understanding according to the commissioner and this
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is this has to have come from bomanca this is his account of what was going on at the time of the shooting the
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commissioner says that both detective Suitor and his partner meaning beaumenka saw a person behaving suspiciously there
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were two observations of this suspicious person one occurred 20 minutes prior meaning the shooting prior to the
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shooting and one occurred just moments before the shooting the detectives did not engage this suspicious person the
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first time they saw this person now in between the two sightings the officers were in a different area but to be clear
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but Mecca was not in the presence of detective Suitor when the struggle went down or when the shots took place this
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case is just getting started but first a quick beer break foreign [Music] cheers mates how about a quick Captain
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recap so what we have going on in this case is we have detective Suitor and his partner
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go out we have a suspicious individual now we have detective Suitor dead and we have law enforcement saying hey we're
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locking down this neighborhood we're going to check anybody coming in and out and we have award money for a possible
00:26:46
cop killer 215 000 for information leading to the perpetrator of the killer of Sean Suiter
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in this case continued to be investigated as a homicide with Police pursuing All Leads but startling new
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information came to light about two weeks after detective Sean Suter was killed that merged his unsolved murder
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case with another high profile case rocking the city of Baltimore this new information suddenly changed the way
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people were looking at things and introduced new potential theories regarding suitor's death
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on November 30th so 15 days after detective Suitor was shot a Federal grand jury handed down an indictment of
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a Baltimore Police sergeant and several officers on the force what was learned is that detective Suitor was scheduled
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to testify in front of this grand jury on the day after he was shot so on November 16
00:27:45
2017 Suitor was scheduled to be a witness against Sergeant Wayne Jenkins in the Federal Criminal Case and Suitor
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had multiple texts and phone calls with his lawyer in the two days before he was
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shot his lawyer was seeking a meeting presumably to discuss his testimony that would never come to be
00:28:07
but even without Suitor the case was a slam dunk Federal prosecutors had the goods on a slew of crooked cops
00:28:14
including wiretapping recordings where the Crooked detectives admitted to various illegal activities including
00:28:21
selling drugs okay now that everything is nice and messy let's talk something through before we go any further because
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even though police are looking for a cop killer those outside of the department are saying wait a minute this is a
00:28:37
mysterious death this detective's death is likely more of a mystery than first thought
00:28:43
all right so the most basic breakdown of theories and there are three is this one
00:28:50
Sean Suiter was murdered a suspicious random person killed him to which police gave a vague description of and per the
00:28:58
autopsy determination of homicide police were still pursuing the unknown gunman two
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this kind of started with the media Sean Suter may have taken his own life it was
00:29:09
determined he was killed with his service Weapon by close contact gunshot wound and the gun was found under his
00:29:16
body three so then you have what some of the public were thinking Sean Suter was set
00:29:24
to testify against corruption inside the police force and detectives he worked with or for and he was silence and his
00:29:32
death was a hit he was murdered potentially by one of his own right let's look more at detective Wayne
00:29:39
Jenkins the one that was the sergeant who was indicted Jenkins was the supervisor in charge of the gun Trace
00:29:47
task force a group of Baltimore Law Enforcement Officers tasked with getting guns off of the streets
00:29:53
Federal authorities brought down a wide-ranging indictment that alleged members of the task force engaged in a
00:30:00
pattern of corruption including robbing citizens framing people stealing confiscated drugs and then reselling
00:30:07
them they were also falsifying Court reports and earning fraudulent overtime pay
00:30:13
six gun Trace Task Force officers pled guilty to these charges two others did not resulting in their trials
00:30:22
Wayne Jenkins the leader of the gun Trace task force was charged with racketeering conspiracy robbery illegal
00:30:30
use of a firearm well like we talked about on the phone a little bit this seems really when you start investigating this
00:30:38
aspect of the case it very much seems like the movie Training Day yes in in parts of American Gangster as well yeah
00:30:48
and when you watch that movie you think to yourself there is no way this would happen in real life and then you see a
00:30:54
case brought to light like this and you start going well maybe a movie like that hits closer to
00:31:00
home than we would we wish it would yeah and for those of the people listening that are not familiar with Sean suiter's
00:31:07
Case this is not our speculation this happened this is real life it happened we have individuals that pled guilty and
00:31:15
others that were later found guilty so the gun Trace task force was essentially a rogue unit comprised of corrupt
00:31:22
officers disguise is an Elite Force of public protectors according to Vox magazine the police officers in the unit
00:31:30
engaged in a year's Long pattern of criminal activities they set people up for baseless searches they robbed people
00:31:38
of drugs and guns among other things they clocked overtime when they weren't working at all in fact when they were on
00:31:46
vacation or on leave they were billing the department for overtime pay they used illegally placed GPS trackers
00:31:54
to locate and Rob drug dealers and others they planted evidence and filmed themselves finding it well as far as
00:32:02
hold on so as far as the overtime I'm assuming that this is like a task force that is run by itself meaning that if
00:32:12
you let's say I'm the boss right because there's no way I'm working for you but let's just say I'm the boss okay you're
00:32:19
Sergeant Wayne Jenkins in this portion of the story I guess okay say I'm a flaming pile of [ __ ] but
00:32:26
you work for me and you say I'm going on vacation but I want paid well you just submit your timesheet to
00:32:34
me and then I submit it to the department like the head Department yeah because you could sign off on it and
00:32:40
then submit it to to the department right so then if I wanted something done nobody's double checking my work either
00:32:46
so that's kind of how we don't know if these guys were corrupt before they joined the task force but
00:32:53
once they become a part of this task force they go hey we run things a little different here
00:32:59
you want to get paid while you're not working we can help you do that right and and while you're doing that you're
00:33:05
also going to turn the other way why we take drug uh we take drugs from drug dealers and sell them
00:33:13
or or Rob them for their money or whatever right so it's it's a separate unit and I
00:33:19
think that's very important it wasn't like there was a lot of checks and balances to make sure these guys weren't
00:33:28
doing corrupt things right if that makes any sense for the most part it it appears that what they were doing a
00:33:35
large part of what they were doing was stealing from people that had no recourse against the police right you
00:33:41
know they're going after people that are doing Petty crimes selling drugs may you
00:33:46
know making money off of drugs and if you're a drug dealer and I'm a an officer of the law and I go and Shake
00:33:53
You Down and Rob you of all your drug money I mean what are you going to do you're going to go file a police report
00:33:59
saying hey this officer stole my drug money right you know it just it doesn't work out they participated in some home
00:34:06
invasions as well what have been classified as home invasions I'm assuming that's kicking in the door of a
00:34:12
known drug dealer and stealing their weapons money and Drugs in total the gun Trace task force members are suspected
00:34:20
of stealing at least three hundred thousand dollars in cash three kilos of cocaine 43 pounds of marrow marijuana
00:34:27
800 grams of heroin and jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars wow now the indictment of Wayne Jenkins related
00:34:35
among other things to an arrest he made in 2010 on a case where he was partnered
00:34:41
with Sean Suter the two detectives were investigating large-scale drug dealers Suitor and Jenkins became involved in an
00:34:49
unmarked vehicle pursuit of another car driven by one Umar Burley basically Umar Burley says he believed
00:34:59
that the officers were trying to rob him so he fled and now we have a car chase right Burley
00:35:06
crashed into another car the driver of that car was Albert Davis an 87 year old father of a Baltimore Police Officer he
00:35:14
was killed and his wife was seriously injured after the accident Suitor and Jenkins arrested Burley and Jenkins
00:35:22
directed Suitor to search burley's vehicle according to the Federal indictment documents unbeknownst to suit
00:35:28
her Jenkins had planted drugs in burley's car Suter found 28 grams of heroin in the vehicle so this is to
00:35:36
justify the car chase that sends Burley and an associate who was also in the car
00:35:41
to prison for federal drug offenses after suitor's death U.S attorney Stephen schenning said the federal
00:35:48
prosecutors did not get a chance to discuss suitor's testimony with him prior to his death Suiter was offered
00:35:55
limited immunity to testify about Umar Bradley's case but we don't know what else the grand jury would have asked him
00:36:02
about or where his testimony would have led the investigation Police Commissioner Davis held a press
00:36:08
conference and said quote what this indictment outlines in great detail is the fact that Sean Suter wasn't involved
00:36:16
in any way shape or form in any criminal misconduct whatsoever end quote however it appears that Sean Suter was
00:36:24
actually potentially in a lot of trouble there was a federal grand jury investigation into corrupt cops that
00:36:31
extended to the highest levels of the police force sooner worked closely and at length with several of the named
00:36:37
corrupt cops over the course of his career sudo worked extensively with at least three of the officers indicted in
00:36:44
connection with the corruption of the gun Trace task force I know you're speaking English but it doesn't make any
00:36:49
sense to me so what you're saying on one hand is that they're saying Suitor had nothing to do with this the police
00:36:56
commissioner says the police commissioner saying he he did nothing wrong and then but you're also saying hey he
00:37:03
was going to testify and we're going to offer him limited amounts of immunity right meaning well he did something
00:37:12
wrong where they're going to give him immunity for but are there other things that they're not going to give him
00:37:18
immunity for so it's that's very confusing okay so I'm kind of just dissecting this myself
00:37:24
and giving my uh opinion here on what that means my guess is that they spoke to him about some of his testimony what
00:37:34
he was going to be willing to testify towards against these officers right okay so we're going to say you have
00:37:41
immunity on those particular aspects of our investigation however during the course of you your testimony you could
00:37:50
be asked any number of questions that could go outside of the box that could go away from those particular cases
00:37:57
those particular aspects of their investigation yeah in the course of that we may learn new information that now we
00:38:05
figure out you're not completely on the up and up Mr Suitor and right we can pursue charges against you for
00:38:12
information later learned now what the commissioner is is saying in a lot of words based basically when you break
00:38:21
that down is Suter was there to rat out these other officers that his testimony wasn't he
00:38:30
wasn't going to be put on the stand in front of the grand jury because he was under investigation he's
00:38:36
simply going to be there to testify because we need witnesses to this illegal activity a lot of this illegal
00:38:42
activities going down and the only people witnessing it are other corrupt cops right and
00:38:49
criminals known criminals that they are victimizing so basically they're saying once we get you on the stand and we uh
00:38:55
we want the truth and I ask you can you handle the truth and then I tell you that I issued a code red that I still
00:39:03
might go to jail for that right he could be open he could open himself up to investigation per his testimony and
00:39:10
again it's not like it's not a situation where they go okay here's these 10 questions this is what we're going to
00:39:15
ask you and that's it and that's all no it's you are you are there and you are to give us your knowledge of anything we
00:39:22
ask you questions about it could be anything at all right but on top of that we have the chief of police saying hey
00:39:29
based on what we know and based on what we believe that he did not do any illegal criminal activity as
00:39:39
a law enforcement officer correct that's what the commissioner is saying now where people call that into question is
00:39:45
suter's lengthy career stating you know he would have worked with some of these individuals at some point in his career
00:39:51
now let's name a few of them we know he worked with Wayne Jenkins who was pretty
00:39:56
much the ringleader of this of these corrupt cops right he's the Denzel Washington in Training Day yeah he also
00:40:03
worked with or Josh Brolin from uh American Gangster um he also worked with detectives
00:40:10
Maurice ward in Mamadou gando so Ward and gondo both pled guilty to federal charges so now we have to wonder what
00:40:18
that leaves the public wondering about what did Sean Suter know about these illicit activities and his fellow
00:40:25
detectives did he know and just choose to look the other way was he in fact ratting them out like the commissioner
00:40:32
would have us believe or did he participate joining in with these corrupt officers and being in on the
00:40:39
take right or was it again like Training Day what a lot of things that happened was Denzel Washington
00:40:47
character would set up Ethan Hawke's character and say hey go ahead and rent me out go ahead and tell them I did this
00:40:57
and they're going to drug test you and guess what you got PCP in your system so again it could be one of those
00:41:05
situations where we don't know what Suitor is going to say because his suit are going to not say certain things
00:41:12
therefore not incriminating himself does that make sense oh yeah and and just to give you a little thought of
00:41:20
where my feelings were when researching this case right from the get-go in the very beginning I'm like oh my God this
00:41:27
guy was a hero he was a a veteran officer of a well-respected homicide detective out just doing a good job and
00:41:36
he was killed in the line of duty right and then you find out about all this corruption and you start to wonder was
00:41:44
he just another dirty cop in this big story here right and the thing that I had to kind of
00:41:51
remind myself of is what you just talked about training day where Ethan Hawke is
00:41:55
almost forced into a position he never thought he would be in he was he just wanted to be in that drug task force
00:42:01
right and he gets in there and he finds out they're doing illegal activity and Denzel Washington's like you're going to
00:42:07
go along with this right and they're going to force you to we're going to bully you into doing our illegal
00:42:14
activity right and at the end of the day you go oh well Ethan Hawke his character
00:42:20
good guy saves the day but if you go back through that movie there's a lot of stuff that was
00:42:28
incriminating or criminal activity that he took place in and so therefore he could still get in trouble for that
00:42:34
training day I know we're getting sidetracked here but training day is one of my favorite that's a great movie like
00:42:39
King Kong ain't got [ __ ] on me rarely can I go back and watch a movie multiple
00:42:44
times training day I've watched multiple times and here is when you for me this is when I know somebody's like of
00:42:53
extremely fine actor Denzel Washington who I mean I'm a big fan of I've watched many of his movies
00:43:01
but when an actor can become a bad guy when he's playing a bad guy and he's you're not used to him being a bad guy
00:43:10
and he does it so well that you want to punch him in the face that's an actor that's a damn face a
00:43:16
damn fine actor right there in the face I'm going on record right here I want to
00:43:20
punch Denzel Washington's character in the face in the face now today Captain six indicted detectives have pled guilty
00:43:29
and been sentenced the ringleader Wayne Jenkins got 25 years clap clap two detectives who pled not guilty were
00:43:37
convicted by a federal jury on several federal charges here's the other sketchy thing though
00:43:45
here it's unclear whether Sean Suter was ever actually part or a part of the gun
00:43:50
Trace task force there are reports out there that says he was early on but asked to be removed from this task right
00:43:59
again and again look that's a sticky situation because if you are a good cop and you see bad stuff happening
00:44:07
and these guys are doing really bad stuff we're talking about stealing drugs stealing money we're talking about
00:44:13
robbing uh gang members we're talking about robbing drug dealers we're talking about planning
00:44:19
evidence on those people after you arrest them I mean this is some bad stuff so if you're in that situation you
00:44:28
can't just go hey hey uh Sarge uh well I don't like what's going on here huh can
00:44:34
you uh I'm gonna have to arrest you all you know take in hmm no you can't do that you have to go hmm this is some bad
00:44:42
stuff going on let me get out of this department well and here's the thing too when you really
00:44:47
dive into what these corrupt members of the task force were doing it's almost like at some point they became
00:44:54
completely out of control themselves like in Training Day like in American Gangster where these Rogue cops all of a
00:45:02
sudden they they are like you said King Kong ain't got nothing on me there's nobody bigger than me I can do whatever
00:45:07
I want that at some point that is the behavior that took over there's in fact there's one story of these corrupt cops
00:45:16
where they are breaking up a riot okay and the rioters were looting the area and after they broke up the riot and
00:45:24
made some arrest these officers decided to keep and steal basically steal the looted items from
00:45:32
the rioters oh right so if the writers stole TVs and stuff they went yeah and we're not going to give these back well
00:45:39
you just go we can't find it you know we don't know what happened to this so we don't know where those TVs went and if
00:45:45
anybody wants to know what it's like to drink with the kernel all you have to do is watch that scene
00:45:52
of King Kong eight [ __ ] on me that's that I mean that's that's basically a impersonation of you one when you're at
00:46:01
the peak of drunkness I become bulletproof I still think you know listen up people
00:46:09
when you write in and say I'd love to have a beer with the captain you're making a mistake
00:46:14
okay because first of all I like to do the shots you're not going to be able to keep up but second of all I'm not the
00:46:21
party animal of the group it's the colonel he becomes the Kentucky Fried no what's the one extra
00:46:29
Christmas I wish I had that tan if you don't believe me come see us at crime con
00:46:36
uh in New Orleans this year yeah we have our uh our code yeah what's our promo code we have a promo code on our website
00:46:43
and we'll mention that at the end of the show you can get a discount on your crime Con tickets using that code yeah
00:46:50
but anyways the evidence will be at crimecon and you'll see video footage and and pictures and you will know
00:46:56
that the extra crispy kernel is alive and well because that's that's the one you want to party with well but just to
00:47:03
kind of clean this up though yeah you know from an outsider's perspective you have to wonder was you you have one of
00:47:11
two things either Sean Suiter was an awesome cop was very good at his job was a clean cop or you do have there is
00:47:20
enough stuff out there to wonder if he wasn't so on the up and up and a lot of that is a is a leap a lot of that is a
00:47:28
jump but what that comes from is knowing that he worked with at least three of these detectives that were later
00:47:35
convicted yeah but look at these guys that were convicted they got what they deserve time in
00:47:42
person and if detective shooter was a dirty cop he would have got we would have found evidence of this and we would
00:47:50
have and he would have done time and that's what he would have got what he deserved
00:47:55
this is not what he deserved right no matter if he was a dirty cop or not he's all he's killed in the line of duty
00:48:03
and we don't know why or a possible suicide I mean this is very strange well and the way that these
00:48:12
little the way that these gangs work whether they be cop bad cops or real you know street gangs or anything like that
00:48:20
most of the time the way that this works is they bust one guy they get some information from this one
00:48:27
guy he starts talking now they got other people to investigate they start pulling
00:48:31
other people in and these corrupt cops most of them gave a wealth of information about what was going on
00:48:40
that's what led to them pleading guilty to these charges and others being convicted who didn't plead guilty now
00:48:47
out of all of those officers it's my understanding that only one of them was implicating Sean Suter in having any
00:48:56
involvement at all with this group after the November 30th 2017 indictments against members of the gun Trace task
00:49:05
force the U.S attorney's Office filed a petition to vacate the federal convictions of Umar Burley and his
00:49:12
associate those were the two involved in the car chase and later the car accident
00:49:16
that led to the older man's death they vacated this because it was proved that the drugs were planted on them and
00:49:24
that they were not actually guilty of the crimes they were convicted of when the indictments were handed down
00:49:30
commissioner Davis disbanded the gun Trace task force describing the indicted officers as 1930s style gangsters now
00:49:39
three thousand past cases handled by the unit members have been called into question and who knows how many
00:49:45
convictions will be thrown out hundreds have already been vacated clearly Davis did not do a good job the commissioner
00:49:53
of overseeing the police department this is because obviously this Rogue unit was
00:49:58
allowed to run rampant for years under his watch this would eventually end Davis's career but before so
00:50:06
commissioner Davis stated in a press conference that he only learned of suitor's planned grand jury testimony
00:50:12
after suitor's death he also stated that investigating officers found no connection between
00:50:19
detective suitor's murder and his planned testimony he also said that Suitor was not the target of the federal
00:50:27
investigation which was confirmed by the U.S attorney's Office Davis said there was no information he was aware of that
00:50:34
indicated that detective Suitor was anything other than a stellar detective great friend loving husband and great
00:50:40
father commissioner Davis wrote a highly publicized letter to FBI director Christopher Wray
00:50:48
formally requesting that the FBI take over the shooting of detective Suitor investigation Davis said that it was
00:50:56
because he suspected that there was information about the murder that the feds had access to that the Baltimore
00:51:02
Police Department did not FBI involvement was supported by suter's Family Nicole Suter suiter's Widow
00:51:10
apparently told the mayor that she supported the FBI taking over the case yeah and this is because once people
00:51:18
start leaning towards this idea that detective Suitor took his own life this is something that she she welcomed
00:51:27
investigation right but also you're going to have people investigate a case where he was possibly involved in
00:51:36
wrongdoings with other officers and you're going to have that department how can you trust that department
00:51:43
to head this investigation right so okay now the FBI doesn't want to head the investigation yeah so to be clear they
00:51:54
agreed to assist in the investigation but they publicly stated they did not want to lead the investigation but fine
00:52:01
with me right if I'm if I'm a loved one fine with me at least they're involved and if they're involved I'm going to
00:52:09
trust the investigation a lot more this is coming from his his widow which talked to him I believe within an hour
00:52:16
of his death right and so she was on the phone and they were talking about some video where he was you know dancing or
00:52:23
something and somebody took you know caught him dancing and they're making fun of it you know and just joking
00:52:28
around and she just said that he seemed very normal so we have this cop that we it's it's so weird because we have so
00:52:36
many people saying this guy's a good cop and a good and a good dude on top of that his wife is saying he
00:52:43
wasn't suicidal right and then you start going well again do you get any benefits
00:52:50
or is his family going to get any benefits I mean it was it wasn't just him and his wife they had
00:52:56
a lot they had five children a lot of kids so the thing here is you know when when this came forward that this is a
00:53:04
possible suicide rather than a homicide suter's family has been extremely vocal saying we believe it was a homicide we
00:53:14
believe that there's evidence to point that would indicate that it was a homicide
00:53:18
and they've been extremely vocal about that and you know what commissioner Davis is obviously a flawed commissioner
00:53:26
we know that we have this Rogue task force that is out there doing whatever the hell they want under his watch
00:53:33
but I'm sure throughout his career he did do a good deal of good things along the way right now one thing will remind
00:53:40
you I mean there's hundreds of officers so the idea that you have one person that's responsible for all those
00:53:48
officers how anybody gets out of that job with a good name I don't know how it happens
00:53:56
you can't babysit every officer every minute of the day it's you're one person now one thing I think we should give
00:54:03
credit to commissioner Davis for this was before he was fired is requesting the FBI come in and take over this
00:54:10
investigation that to me shows a couple of things it shows smarts on his part because one he wants to be transparent
00:54:17
he knows that he has a police department that is under the scrutiny of the Public's eye which they should be
00:54:24
because they some members we need to be very clear about that some members of the police department were
00:54:32
very much guilty of illegal activities some members were shading that's That's a hardcore fact so commissioner Davis
00:54:40
bringing in the FBI is a couple of things one to be transparent and it could not hurt to have an outside agency
00:54:47
take a good look at this investigation to take a good look at this case and try to solve it for them yeah and then
00:54:56
on the other spectrum of it too you know like I said if you commit suicide I don't think you're getting
00:55:04
I don't think the officer's family is going to get support I don't think they're going to get certain benefits
00:55:11
but if he is killed on the line of duty they're taken care of and pretty well so
00:55:18
then one could argue are they just saying hey it's impossible that he'd kill himself
00:55:24
because they benefit from that and that's something that you have to look into I Believe by watching and the
00:55:32
interviews with his widow that she she just wants the truth to be told right I don't think she cares about the benefits
00:55:40
or not well after commissioner Davis was eventually fired he was replaced as police commissioner in January of 2018
00:55:48
by veteran Daryl D'Souza de Sousa lasted less than six months as the police commissioner he stepped down in May
00:55:58
after being indicted for federal tax evasion one thing desousa did before he departed he set up an independent review
00:56:06
board to look into the unsolved killing of detective Suitor so thanks everybody for joining us in
00:56:15
the garage today we'll be right back at you tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't litter
00:56:28
foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]