Who Killed Det. Sean Suiter?

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By J. K. Schmid, Special to the AFRO

Detective Sean Suiter was murdered November 15, 2017, in the 900 block of Baltimore’s Harlem Park.

It has been over five months since his death. Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) Commissioner Darryl De Sousa still regularly meets with Suiter’s widow, he says.

“It’s still heavy in her heart and heavy in the heart of all of us in the Baltimore City Police Department,” De Sousa said at a press conference April 12.

Det. Sean Suiter, an 18-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, was shot in the head while investigating a murder in West Baltimore, Nov. 15. He died from his injuries about 24 hours after the shooting. (Courtesy photo)

At the same press conference, De Sousa announced the creation of an independent review board (IRB) and that the city will be hiring CNA Analysis and Solutions to review seemingly every aspect of the case and the department’s handling of it.

The Board of Estimates was asked to authorize the execution of a memorandum of understanding April 18.

“The BPD, after consultation and approval from the Independent Review Board, desires to retain and the services of the CNA to provide analytic and staff support to the BPD and the review board during this process,” the request reads.

The request is for $149,046.97 to be paid to CNA for its services. AFRO questions to the BPD asking for an explanation of what this seemingly small sum could pay for went unanswered at the time of this writing.

The independent investigation is expected to take six months, meaning something on the order of $25,000 each month will be available to the IRB.

AFRO questions to the specifics of the establishment of the IRB were also left unanswered. It can be inferred from De Sousa’s answers to other questions at the press conference that CNA was hired first, and then the IRB’s panel of experts and investigators were hired later.

The IRB is co-chaired by CNA members James “CHIPS” Stewart, Director of Public Safety, Senior Fellow for Law Enforcement, and James R. “Chip” Coldren, Jr., Ph.D., Managing Director, Justice Group.

According to De Sousa, CNA was selected due to their satisfactory handling of high-profile BPD crises such as the police killings of Black Baltimoreans Anthony Anderson, and Tyrone West and the friendly fire incident that killed Black Baltimore police officer William Torbit and Sean Gamble.

Last year, the BPD settled with the Anderson family for $300,000, four years after his death in police custody. Since Anderson’s death in 2013, Baltimore has also borne witness to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015. Tawanda Jones, Tyrone West’s sister, has scheduled another West Wednesday for April 18 “demanding accountability for the police murder of Tyrone West, and accountability in every case of police brutality.”

De Sousa cited CNA’s recommendation that Black plainclothes officers wear larger body-width “police” labels in order to keep themselves safe from fellow officers as another success.

With federal agents declining to investigate, there may be nowhere else to turn.

CNA is being asked to investigate the death of Detective Suiter and not just analyze policy and procedure. The IRB will be able to interview witnesses, but will have no subpoena or arrest power.

Stewart is a former commander with the Oakland Police Department Criminal Investigation Division. Last year, Oakland PD was scandalized when an officer accused multiple fellow officers of the statutory rape of a police dispatcher’s daughter.

“We’re gonna follow where the evidence leads us and we are gonna provide some conclusions,” Stewart said.