Detective Sean Suiter /// Part 2 /// 277 | Forensic Files

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through the evidence and see if we can come up with a better explanation regarding the death of detective Suitor
so there was some audio and then some video evidence in this case the difficult thing in this case is
information and facts seem to have come out in little nuggets here and there and
it really just leaves you wondering if you have heard the whole story so we've compiled this and tried to put it
together in a presentation that makes the most sense regarding the surveillance footage this was taken from
a private video camera attached to the Food Mart Convenience Store on Bennett Place the police have relied on the
private camera in the past for footage and photos of suspects in this rough neighborhood just like seemingly every
other piece of surveillance footage we've seen in other cases the time stamp on this video is off it was later
revealed to be off by 11 hours the footage has been analyzed and over analyzed and picked apart by the media
and the public to be clear what it shows I really think is open to interpretation
for one thing the video is taken from across the street and way down the block any human figures visible are small
and the video has areas that appear to be out of focus or or smudged but here is what the video shows
according to the Baltimore Police Department and mind you this is taken from a statement before they release the
video to the public they say that the video shows detective Suitor and bomenka they are at Bennett Place near the
entrance to the vacant lot now we lose sight of beaumenka who is wearing a light tan trench coat and is
distinguishable from the dark suited Suitor a DOT and I I describe this as a DOT
because it's what it looks like to me a DOT that may be Suitor is seen standing behind a white van parked on Bennett
Place walking around described as pacing back and forth what happens next is very
unclear but according to the official Baltimore Police Department position what we see is Suitor pacing back and
forth behind the van and then suddenly darting into the vacant lot with his radio in his left hand and his gun in
his right then shots rang out now the video from what I could find does not have
sound so we can only guess that this is when the shots rang out and we see beaumenko running across the
street away from the lot to take cover specifically the whole episode between Suitor running into the lot in bomenka
running took about eight seconds or less the vacant lot where suter's body was found is not in the line of sight of the
camera we are informed later that bemenka had been on Schroeder street right around
the corner when the shots were fired and he did not see what happened according to the Baltimore Police
Department's interpretation there is no perpetrator seen on the video footage although others argue that that's
debatable then we have two witnesses two eyewitnesses who do not wish to be identified but they told WBAL TV 11 news
that they saw suitor's partner beaumenka walking on the sidewalk to an opening when gunfire rang out
the second witness told the same news station that after the gunfire he saw suitor's partner in a crouched position
with his gun drawn the witness said the partner then ran through the crime scene
and into Bennett Place so if the two eyewitnesses are reliable and if what's been disclosed by the
police department about the contents of the surveillance footage is accurate then detective bomenka could not have
been the shooter who killed Sean according to bemenka he called 9-1-1 on his phone and then went to the vacant
lot to check on his partner so what is strange here by this whole account is that bemenka did not have his radio on
him right he had to use his cell phone to call for backup Police Dispatch sent out a signal 13 an emergency call that
means urgent officer down this took place at 4 36 pm police dispatchers initially radioed
quote caller reporting his partner got shot no description of the suspect no further end quote interestingly this
directly contradicts a statement we know commissioner Davis made about the suspect being a black man in a black and
white jacket this statement by Davis about the suspects seen by bemenko was released later on the night of the
shooting but dispatch was not notified of any description in the initial 9-1-1 call and in fact was told there was not
a description but then an hour after the shooting a dispatcher issued a city-wide
bolo be on the lookout for a black male with white sleeves and a knit baseball cap so this video the long version is
about an hour and 10 minutes I'm not going to post that version but there is a shorter version where they zoom in
where they believe the detective was detective Suitor was so I will post that on our website at True Crime garage we
also have commissioner Davis who revealed that there was a brief two or three second unintelligible transmission
from Detective Shooters radio it conveyed that he was quote clearly in distress said Davis Suter is heard to
shout something and it was confirmed by his peers that it was likely suter's voice in this bit of audio
and there's a loud sound that could be possibly a gunshot and then silence and when he was found Suitor was still
holding his radio in his left hand commissioner Davis elaborated that the body cam footage from officers
responding to the scene showed that suitor's radio never left his hand responding officers wearing body cameras
turned Suitor over and found him to be in grave condition after sending Suter off to the hospital in a law enforcement
vehicle officers first concern was the possibility that the shots came from a nearby building
bemenka said he heard multiple gunshots but was not able to detect their origin and when he ran to suit her side there
was no suspect in sight this is confirmed by the audio recordings of the police dispatch calls in one of the
radio Transmissions the officer on the scene says we still have a possible armed perp here officer was not able to
speak on where it came from meaning the gunshots we don't know if it was on foot in the
rear alley or from one of the houses near the window we're not sure so the block was placed on lockdown while
officers searched for the shooter in the many nearby vacant buildings as we know
it remained on lockdown for six days while the police department investigated meanwhile we know that someone drove
Suter to the shock trauma center got into an accident and Suitor was transferred to an ambulance despite this
Dr Thomas Scalia physician and chief at the shock trauma unit told the sun later
that any delay in getting Suitor to the hospital did not impact his condition some more details the bullet entered
behind his right ear and traveled forward exiting from his left temple this fact raised all sorts of questions
was it possible that he was wrestling with an attacker and had his arm twisted around behind his ear and the gun went
off how did the bullet get lodged into the dirt ground was Suitor on the ground when he was
shot that would explain the dirt some of the dirt that was found on his clothing
right but interestingly no mention has ever been made of the whereabouts of the other two bullets now we know
that they were fired from suter's gun but where are they as far as we know they've never been located so we have
yes we have the bullet casings but no bullets all right Captain I think that we need
to dive into the suicide Theory as I think this Theory might be the biggest and most complicated of the theories put
forth the suicide Theory I think has the most layers to it one layer and a very thick
one I might add is when Suitor was subpoenaed to testify against his fellow officers he possibly would be
incriminating himself in illegal activity as well also some of the disgraced task force
members named 12 additional officers in the Baltimore Police Force who were in on the take these additional officers
allegedly either participated in the committing of crimes helped cover them up or enjoyed some of the proceeds and
some of these were higher ups one of those named was the head of the Baltimore Police Department's Internal
Affairs Division and Davis's number two man on the force one was an assistant State's Attorney
and one was detective Sean Suter now detective gondo who we talked about yesterday asserted specifically that
Sean Suter had for a decade participated in stealing money with the task force members and other corrupt members of the
Baltimore Police Department right he also said that Suitor knowingly planted the heroine and Umar burley's vehicle
despite all commissioner Davis's repeated assertions that Sean Suter was clean as a whistle the news that he had
been named as corrupt as well as the other pieces of evidence about his killing it was his own gun it was a
close contact wound no one saw a perpetrator may suggest that Suitor actually killed himself Stephen
schenning the acting U.S attorney said people had suggested Suitor was complicit in misconduct but said quote
we'll never know what he knew because he's not here to speak to the circumstances
so was it possible that Suitor was crooked and did he not want that truth to emerge tarnishing his reputation
ending his career Landing him in prison and shaming and impoverishing his family
it is possible in other words that Suitor staged his own suicide to look like he was killed
in action not being able to face his own downfall hence why there's three shots from his gun
so this has happened before specifically in 2015 a Fox Lake Illinois Lieutenant carefully staged his death to look like
he was killed in the line of duty but actually killed himself after stealing from a youth program he oversaw
this guy embezzled thousands of dollars over seven years and spent it on mortgage payments travel gym memberships
among other things but the walls were closing in and he knew he was about to be nailed for his crimes right on the
day he died he was on duty he radioed that he was chasing three suspects in a swampy area near Fox Lake north of
Chicago backup officers later found his body about 50 yards from his squad car his death set off a huge Manhunt
involving hundreds of officers the search involved multiple law enforcement agencies and ended up costing over three
hundred thousand dollars in overtime and other expenses authorities said the officer was shot with his own gun and
took elaborate steps to try to make it look like he died in a struggle including shooting himself twice in the
Torso through his vest the suspects were never found investigators finally reached the conclusion of suicide which
was vehemently opposed by his family including his four children who said the officer never once thought of taking his
own life and spoke excited Lee and often about what he planned to do after retirement right you can't deny that
there are parallels between that case and that of Sean Suter well yeah but one one thing that is not parallel is that
shooter has another detective with him so even if you Fire Two Shots maybe thinking that you're going to
stun the other detective and he's going to look away or take cover now you have seconds to then make it
look like you struggled with somebody and shoot yourself at the same time so that that's a big difference and a lot
of stuff regarding the Suitor case from within the department thoughts and theories from within the department
didn't come out until 2018 because apparently several of the initial investigators on The Suitor case came to
the conclusion that he may have killed himself this being as early as a month after his
death right the Baltimore Sun reported that month that officials inside the Baltimore Police Department itself were
divided about where the evidence in the case pointed them to and again we have commissioner Davis who continued to
endorse the homicide Theory and then others leaned towards suicide as the most likely explanation by March of 2018
the AP described suter's death as a baffling whodunit with evidence pointing in two different directions murder verse
suicide suitor's family of course insists that the suicide theory is absurd they
maintain that he was a happy father of five who would never have left his children his uncle this is Sherman basil
mentioned that Suitor was eagerly looking forward to a peaceful retirement this is just seven years away and he had
recently made plans to visit his uncle in DC with his extended family over the Christmas holidays well okay I don't I
don't mean to stop you in the tracks here but even with the last case the the officer that took his life because he
stole money if it if it is true that detective shooter was taking money here's these here's what I have a
problem is when everybody goes well he was a happy man and he didn't talk about any depression and he was looking
forward to retirement did he also tell you about the money he was stealing right in the fact that he was yeah he
didn't right and we and he didn't in the first case and so this is this is evidence that you don't know everything
about this individual I mean you you have to know that that's evidence that they're hiding something so I just want
to put that out there well and we didn't get into the thick of this yesterday so
I think we should now because as you pointed out there are possibly more motivating
factors for a possible suicide Suter had five children his salary was reportedly
78 000 a year right if he died in the line of duty his family stood to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in a
lump sum payouts a federal and state benefits right a pension giving his widow his annual salary for life and I
actually saw one report that states it would be tax-free for the course of her life was that's good though it should be
taxed there would also be workers compensation as well as any possible life insurance that they had Okay so
are you is that it on those facts well I I think let's go into these benefits go
ahead I have a question for you okay well what does it get if he goes to jail how much they how much does the police
department pay his family uh he wouldn't get they I don't know this to be 100 fact but
I have to believe it would be zero right it's probably zero right you don't get to go to jail and they go hey we're
going to pay your family money or hey what's what's the benefits that your family gets if you go to jail
zero right so you know that that becomes a difficult thing you know that seems to me like such a
big motive and then on the other side of things you go well of course the I I don't believe that that his wife is
arguing that he didn't kill himself because she wants money but that has to play a factor in this
that she would have a motive to keep that fight going does that make sense well yeah I mean you've got to question
everything what question if we're questioning Sean suiter's motivation right if and what may have actually
happened it's fair to question hers as well right but then we have to question somebody else's motive as well because
if the police department is saying Hey look at first we're looking for a suspect
white jacket black and white jacket black man this is what we're looking for we're
shutting down a whole neighborhood and then all of a sudden you go hey hey this cop wasn't dirty well maybe the cop
was dirty this is what they're saying there's the there's a suspect no there's not a
suspect uh a Suitor wasn't dirty oh he was dirty and then you're and you're gonna tell me
now we don't know if we have a shooter and now we think that he killed himself well guess who doesn't have to pay
anything out if he killed himself the police department so and I understand that's not coming
directly from their pockets but I you know I've never been a part of those budget meetings
and trust me I know some people that have and they're not pretty yeah but I should you know I want to include this
because my take on this whole story is while you have some investigators saying that hey there are there were some
things that pointed to a possible suicide I don't believe it was their their um 100 put our stamp on it positioned
that he did commit suicide and I mean that being coming directly from the Baltimore
Police Department I don't I don't see them trying to spin this in that direction uh at this point in our in our
story in the case that appears to me to be speculation they're still treating this as a
homicide but these are just possible motivating factors for another possibility of
suicide and as mentioned so one of the um benefits the largest benefit that would be available to families of Fallen
law law enforcement officers this would come from the U.S justice department it's a program that provides 350
000 in payout and it also pays out for higher education tuition assistance for his children
so that money is not available if he was a dirty cop or if it was determined that his death
was caused by his own intention so in other words if Sean Suiter killed himself many of those benefits to his
family would be drastically reduced if not removed altogether one do you know how much money these kids would get for
college assistance I mean do you know how much it is to get a computer degree this in these day and age
trillions of dollars right trillions and I I've actually seen different reports regarding what the
tuition assistance would would have been for his children right um anything from
you know the the whole bill is paid to um you know a small amount paid annually well and I'm joking about the trillions
but I mean higher education now I mean the price is ridiculous well so if he did commit suicide how
would this have worked if this is in fact what happened if Sean Suter did kill himself we can only wonder when he
made the decision to do such a thing and how much planning went into it for one thing there are reports that shooter
shooter I'm sorry requested beaumenka to work with him that day being a junior partner so bemenka was kind of low on
the totem pole as far as these homicide investigators go he was only in the homicide division for five months
perhaps bomenko was more likely to follow suitor's Direction leaving his side to enter the vacant lot on the
Schroeder Street side and there would be no witnesses to what happened right one
thing we got to point out here is while they were tracking down this quote-unquote lead this possible lead in
an unsolved homicide Suitor was directing himself that day he wasn't he wasn't being directed by a
higher up as to where to go that day he was choosing where to go and some have pointed out that him knowing that it was
an abandoned neighborhood you know a bad place a bad part of town right that this
might be a good place to Stage a murder stage his murder and but what's weird here is
that we have them on video footage looking odd almost as as if he's paying attention to somebody
and then he goes into this alley we got three gunshots so you go you fire randomly and then put
one in the back of your head mhm and then where does the gun fall the gun Falls underneath him as he falls
now I'm not so worried about where they found them where they found the bullet right and
the reason why is because I don't think necessarily that Suitor has to place himself on the ground to get the bullet
where it was the bullet could have ricocheted off of anything and fell you know I mean well I I'm with you on
the the finding of the bullet the location of the bullet that killed him I think you could argue it both ways one
it could indicate that he turned his gun on himself or that he was involved in a
struggle and he ended up toward the ground or facing the ground or on the ground right and was was killed by you
know a gunman who got away right now but what's weird to me though is the struggle it also could have been
he's pulling his trigger himself and the struggle happens where his arm goes then behind his head
think about like if a guy got behind him put him in a half Nelson then his arms struggling and maybe he goes to fire
thinking he's going to shoot him and ends up shooting himself in the head I think what we do have though is you know
we have ballistic evidence to to know if it came from his gun which I'm assuming
that they know and that bullet did come from his gun they have uh publicly stated that ballistically uh they have
proof that the three shots were fired from his gun right and so the other thing though too is we have uh the
measurements of his arms and the measurement of the gun and is it even possible for him to get the gun in the
spot where he shot himself and and facing in the direction that the bullet would exit the body
I think they they should be able to prove that scientifically when when this case first broke
okay now keep in mind they're obviously treating this as a homicide right from the get-go but when the case first broke
the information that came out was that he had his radio in his left hand his gun in his right hand and that he was
shot in the rights I'm sorry that he was shot in the left side of his head which
scientifically makes it almost impossible that his arm would reach around there and shoot himself in the
left side of his head right what they ended up learning very quickly into the investigation now mind you by
this point they've already set investigators out looking for a killer a cop killer then they find out that no in
fact The Gunshot did come from the right side right entered the head at the right
side right but what I'm saying is depending on where at on the right side of his head
it was behind his ear so it would have been I think it I think I mean I'm this is
the great thing about podcasting I'm sitting here we're both doing this trying to put our right hand toward the
back of our right ear and somebody's gonna walk in and think we're doing hot yoga but we're not while you can do so I
would I wouldn't say that it's difficult but it doesn't seem very it doesn't seem
Supernatural right but again maybe that's part of the plan if I do it this way it's not going to
seem natural they're not going to know what's up well and then in August of 2018 we will get back the IRB report and
we will review their findings right after this quick beer break [Music] all right we're back
cheers to you Captain cheers to you and cheers to everyone else extra crispy Colonel the independent review board
established to review the investigation into Sean suter's death finally published its 207-page report on August
27 2018 and we will go through all 207 Pages well that's one page less than our report just joking here we'll break it
down for you in some bullet points so the report stated that the IRB concluded that detective Suter took his own life
with his own weapon the report contains information that was not disclosed until
this point so let's break it down now this is all per their report we may argue some things along the way here
Captain but let's start off in investigating the case the police department executed 12 search warrants
conducted 123 interviews followed up on 54 tips and cleared 33 vacant homes in the end they were left with no suspects
Suitor and his partner for the day beaumenka had been to Bennett Place on the previous day as well
Suiter told bemenka that he was in search of a street worker named Mary this is as much information as we have
about this person named Mary whom he said was a potential source of information in a 2016 triple murder but
there is no mention of her in the murder case File or the Department's list of informants
what they're implying here is that Suter may have made up this person named Mary
right Suitor and bomenka thought that they saw the quote suspicious person from their unmarked vehicle at 402 PM
but they weren't certain they decided to call it a day at that point Suitor had a
five o'clock meeting with his attorney the report reveals but bemenka did not know this while driving away Suiter told
beaumenka he saw the suspect in the alley they parked and Suitor stayed behind the white van parked on Bennett
Place and directed bomenka to the corner of Bennett Place and Schroeder Street so that he could see if someone came out
of the opening to the vacant lot located on Schroeder street according to bomanca
at 4 36 PM Suitor ran towards the vacant lot and out of view of bomenka as sooner
disappeared from view bomenka observed Suitor beginning to unholster his weapon with his right hand
just prior to that Suitor waived at bomenka the purpose of this gesture is unclear beaumenka interpreted the wave
to signify that something was happening in the vacant lot he heard Suiter Yale stop stop stop police and heard gunshots
bomenka's reporting is a little inconsistent for this next part the report reads bomenka ran away from the
lot and called 9-1-1 when backup arrived within two minutes of the call bomenka and the responding officer approached
the lot and found Suitor on the ground rolled him over and started chest compressions
just after Suitor was placed in the patrol car to go to the trauma center he received a text message this is from his
attorney at 4 42 PM Jeremy Eldridge texted Suitor you have grand jury by subpoena at 1pm in federal court and a
meeting at 11 A.M at usao followed immediately by I can't stay past six getting no response he texted again at 4
52 PM dude what is going on Sean Suter deleted later convicted officers gondo and Ward from the
contacts of his phone along with 75 texts and 313 call log entries so what did the IRB report point to as
evidence of suicide the autopsy determined that there was a close contact wound where the gun barrel
was pressed to his head the bullet had marks consistent with suter's Glock although it could not be 100 percent
confirmed as coming from suter's gun the evidence is overwhelming that the Fatal
weapon was suter's Glock suter's DNA was found inside the gun barrel as well as on its surface the
report attributes this as likely due to blood spatter entering the chamber the report states that no other traceable
DNA or fingerprints were found on the gun the three shell casings found at the scene came from suter's Gun blood
spatter was found on the inside of suitor's right shirt cuff indicating that his arm was close to the skull and
was spattered when blood was expelled by the shot and making it unlikely that someone was forcibly holding his right
wrist or lower arm mud on suitor's left shoe and left knee shows that he was kneeling on his left
knee when he was shot this they say is inconsistent with a struggle but consistent with Police
Officers Training to take a knee to stabilize themselves when shooting Suter was trained in self-defense and
knew how to use the gun slide to disable his weapon if attacked other than Trace
Amounts of DNA which might be attributed to the officers who transported Suitor to the hospital no DNA other than his
was on his person he had no defense wounds His Radio was still in his hand inconsistent with a struggle based on
the video and witness statements a suspect would not have enough time to disarm and kill suder and Escape bomenka
didn't see anyone running away from the scene and heard Suiter yell stop instead
of help we also have suitors work computer the search history revealed that Suitor
Googled Von Greene Funeral on five occasions on September 6 2017 when Suitor was laid to rest his family
utilized the services of Von Greene Funeral Home okay there's a lot of bullet points
there a lot of different thoughts and that's a lot to go through and here's what we got to be clear on this because
this independent review board they didn't from my understanding they didn't actually go out and conduct their
own investigation what they did was they compiled all of the information that was
gleaned from the investigation already right and reviewed that information together collectively as a board as a
group and came to the conclusion that Sean Suter killed himself right it's like the warring commission and I also
believe that the determination of homicide has not been overturned by this finding of the review board
so technically this would still be should still be a homicide when investigated as such now regarding their
bullet points they do put together a good strong argument that Suitor may have killed himself
I would argue back that I don't think it's conclusive no I don't think so I think it's still
unclear yeah I agree I agree with you on that but it's the deleting of the contacts and the the deleting of the
history that's suspect but you're going to meet with your lawyer later are you trying to get rid of it
before you meet with the lawyer and maybe it has nothing to do with the shooting it's so it's so darn tough
because with this case I think that a lot of the things you can argue on both sides like okay for instance you
mentioned the deleting of those two contacts deleting of text messages that probably were conversations with those
two contacts right was that simply because Sean Suter was a good guy and he it was known to him by
this point that those were bad guys that were you know corrupt cops that he was working with and he didn't want any part
of them yeah just so you know you know we're not the same just because we we both worked for the same Department I've
learned through the course of of history with you that we are not the same we are
not friends right and I'm deleting you for that purpose now yeah but this is an odd time to
delete it so well I I don't know that we know exactly when that was deleted right
um you know this could have been months in advance from what I found in the report it just says that those were
deleted when they inspected his phone that was deleted I don't it's not like they're saying that day the day that he
took his own life he deleted that information that was unclear regarding the funeral home
um okay I am nowhere near nowhere near the age that you would have to put me in an assisted living home
pretty close though but when I used to drive around the state of Ohio conducting interviews and some of them
were taking place at these assisted living homes there was more than one occasion where I
went to one and I'm like that was a really nice facility I really like the way that they are treating the residents
there what I'm getting at is just because he Googled a funeral home doesn't mean that
he was planning his death it could be something as simple as as he attended a funeral there wanted to remember the
name of it in case he had to make arrangements for himself at a later date or one and you say he's just going to
the website he yeah he Googled the um a general name not the exact name of the funeral home but a general name that
would lead him to get information it's kind of like if you walk past a restaurant that you think looks nice and
you're like oh Google John you know John A's well there's also obituaries that are posted on on funeral parlors
websites oh that's true so could he be looking up some you know a friend of a friend a family friend that might have
passed away to see what time their service is or if they passed away who knows I think within all of that that
there's really only two pieces of evidence that I think are very strong in support of the possibility of suicide
I'll I want to argue some other things first before we get to those but regarding okay regarding the the mud or
dirt that was found on his suit again you can argue that both ways the review board wants to suggest that that
means he was kneeling down in a manner that he is taught as an officer to stabilize himself before taking a shot
right can't you argue the same point that he was being attacked or in some kind of
scuffle that led him down to his knee and then he was shot and then you have the thing you have the
blood on his uh cuff on the cuff of his shirt which says that he that there couldn't have been somebody forcing his
hand could not have forced his hand there was nobody else present right I would like to see I would like to see
that really mapped out for all of us you know what I mean map this thing out and
show me how that couldn't mean that somebody else was forcibly holding his hand right to me that's just a non-point
you know it's like it doesn't mean anything I don't give a [ __ ] about their opinions on that well the thing is they
could they could have a better understanding of it because they have better knowledge presented to them where
we don't have enough to go oh right I agree with that or disagree with that right but but since I don't I'm just
throwing it out I'm just saying it's not doesn't matter to me well that's why I say I would like to see more I would
like to see that really mapped out for us scientifically to explain how no one else could have been holding his hand
forcing his arm or anything to that manner yeah and then I also wonder uh do we know if he's in a dead Sprint
the reason why I mean this is is is there is there a possibility that he runs around and says stop he fires two
shots and then somehow within his movements it's an accidental shooting to himself
is that possible well and then you have you have the review board saying well his partner for the day says he was
yelling stop not help we're talking about seconds man who who knows what words we're going to use when
we find ourselves in a situation right but if you're in a situation with another person
cops normally say stop it's the cops stop or I'll shoot right so what you know what I mean I I think
would he yell help I right I actually think him yelling stop indicates that there may have been somebody else
present in that vacant lot with him I agree and okay so I think the most damning part the part that may point the
most to Suicide for me is the the very short period of time from the from when he runs into the vacant lot to win his
partner can see what's going on right they say that that's eight seconds that makes it very that's such a short period
of time for someone to get into an altercation with this officer with sooner overpower him three shots ring out one
of them kills Suitor it could happen however I think it's it's such a small piece of time I don't
find it to be very likely the other part of that is the person getting away right
how does how did the individual get away and not be seen in that short of of a time span we're talking about broad
daylight well eight seconds to run into a building is that's not that's not that's pretty quick but but it's doable
you know if I'm on if I'm on the curb and I push you over I could get inside a house within eight seconds yeah
you could too I mean even with your bum leg well here's here's the thing you have to wonder from knowing where the
bullet came from from behind his right ear yeah is it possible that he ran into that vacant lot and he was ambushed I
don't mean gun down I mean that maybe he was in pursuit of someone or thought he
saw something and was in pursuit of that and someone came up from behind him that would explain his
you know they say that look he he's got his radio in his hands so that doesn't indicate a scuffle
he could be calling for help his intention could have been to call for help that would indicate a scuffle right
well you could run in he has his hand on his radio left hand he comes running in
he thinks he sees something he fires fires booms somebody's behind him they grab his arm he pulls it up accidentally
pulls the trigger or purposely pulls the trigger because he thinks he's going to
hit that person boom he's dead you bring up a very interesting thing here could it be
something as simple as he was in fact in pursuit of someone he thought was behaving suspiciously and loses his
footing as as he's yelling stop with with the intention of firing at some point and
ends up mistakenly shooting himself because again how old is he well he would have been
um 43 years old so 43 year old running around the corner and he's going to put down his knee and as he's
doing this and maybe he has his gun up here again you go okay he hits his knee and ah boom it says I
mean nobody can see the dance moves I'm doing but it's possible it's very possible
and look your body breaks down I I don't care what anybody says and well it doesn't who who cares I mean let's say
he's in the prime of his life we all can take a misstep we all can be running full speed and not see see something and
step on it or roll our ankle anything any of that can happen to anyone at any time well and also you're you think
you're in Pursuit you say that before you get out of the car are you a little jumpy because of the area possibly so
um it's it's a possibility well let's go down this road real quick because I've seen conflicting reports
regarding gunpowder residue there are some reports out there that state that they're they they cleaned his hands that
his body was cleaned at the autopsy therefore they couldn't find gunpowder residue that doesn't mean that there
wouldn't have been some there at some point I've also seen other reports that state
emphatically that yes there was gunpowder residue on Sean suter's hand which would indicate that he fired that
gun himself at least one out of those three times I'm going to go with there was gunpowder
residue because the the sources that that come comes from I believe to be more credible right so I'm not saying
I'm not saying 100 that is fact but in my research scene I believe it to be true it seems like everybody's kind of
leaning that way yeah so there have been people that have pointed out well because there was gunpowder residue on
his hand then he had to have shoot himself but then one could argue is it possible
he fired one or two of the shots but not the shot that killed him right and then people have also argued well
would have Suitor have been smart enough to know that they would find gunpowder residue on his hand therefore he
purposely fired more than one shot before killing himself well again and then you wonder about this video as a
doctor in any way is it edited in any way how long did they have this video footage before it's released to the
public the thing that really drives me nuts or really is hard for me to contemplate
this whole suicide thing as again you have a person with you right and so now you're going to try to Stage this
if you're going to Stage this right there would have been easier ways to do it I think well yeah and you're almost
like purposely going hey by the way there's this guy we got to go get him come with me where he could have said
stay back in the car you know radio for help or whatever right he could have said all this stuff
but he's saying no come with me get closer to the area where I'm gonna uh fake my my death yeah I mean I mean
think about this would they talk about all the abandoned houses the vacant houses in that area right Suitor was not
a dumb guy this was a very smart detective face why wouldn't he have said to bemenka hey I think I saw that guy
run into that house over there I'm gonna go in and chase him out to you yeah he could have he could have went into a
space where he would have known there would have been no Witnesses right this vacant lot while it was
vacant and yes there ended up being no eyewitnesses to whatever happened in there
that was a space that it's broad daylight there's a chance someone could have seen him it doesn't seem to me if
we're talking about a smart intelligent detective planning his own suicide to look like a murder
it doesn't look to me like this would be the spot he would pick right and very strange to me that the
whole department would come out initially and say we have a suspect we've seen a suspect our the other
officer the other detective on duty with him saw a suspect this is what we're looking for we're shutting down a whole
part of town and we're gonna infringe on other people's constitutional rights to try to
find this individual and then all of a sudden say yeah there was there was never another suspect we never saw
anybody and by the way this was a suicide and you know what I I have to believe that the description that they were
using when they believed they were looking for a shooter that's gotta come from bemenka saying hey this is what we
thought we saw before the shooting happened this was the the guy that we thought that we saw and that I believe
Suitor was in pursuit of here's a couple here's the other thing though too who knows
uh here I mean this is how far-fetched you can get with these possibilities what if he's did see somebody
right for manka he sees somebody he's saying hey look we saw somebody he might have struggled
with him we don't know if it was eight seconds 18 seconds 20 seconds we're not really for sure right because the the
audio doesn't line up with the visual we don't know well and the visual is not great no I mean it looks I mean it looks
like ants you can't tell what is happening I mean it looks like little blurry dots on the screen you go to our
website and watch it you'll be like well that was a waste of time uh and then thank me later no but it's
like we don't know and then did somebody that they charge with these crimes these
dirty cops did they get to to this cop and say hey you need to forget about the suspect you saw because
they're thinking this bastard is going to throw us under the bus and then he's going to get killed in the line of duty
and his family is going to get taken care of and ours isn't we're going to be stuck in prison
you know you're going to say that you didn't you didn't see anybody you're going to say that this was a suicide and
if you don't say that we'll go after your family I mean that's how far-fetched you can go with these
possibilities you know but to me our initial reports coming from law enforcement if we're going to believe
anything that law enforcement says our initial reports is that we have a suspect and we're shutting down this
whole part of this goddamn City to try to find this suspect because we have a cop killer
you turn around however many days later and say that it was a suicide I just don't I just don't know how much I buy
that well look I can certainly agree with and understand or try to understand because I don't live in that community
I can agree with and try to understand the Viewpoint of the citizens of Baltimore saying we can't trust these
police I still have two eyewitnesses right no I what I'm saying is I get that because
it's proven there was corruption within that department but it's not everyone it's as far as we
know a small it's a faction of that department right so the public is very skeptical and I
think they should be I'm skeptical of the independent review boards findings of what they released is their belief as
to what happened I'm very skeptical of that I actually I don't fully agree with it I think you need to show me more
evidence to tell me that he killed himself yeah I don't think it stands up it doesn't stand up to me and I won't
let it stand in the garage but we want the truth God damn it what the what the Baltimore public will likely say at
least a portion of them is well we can't trust this department to give us the proper information
I'm going to argue on behalf of some of that department and saying this bemenka while I find some of his statements to
be inconsistent I don't think that he knowingly knew anything when he went out there that day
meaning if it was a suicide he didn't know or meaning if it was a setup for Suitor to be taken down he didn't know
either I think that his statements are somewhat inconsistent not because he's being controlled not because there's
some great Puppet Master behind him pulling levers making him do and say things I believe it's because he was out
on the job in the field that day and something horrible happened and I believe that it happened very quickly
and it might be a little sketchy as to the second by second details that you're asking this detective to later give you
so I don't I don't find much problem with the very minor inconsistencies in his story the other thing too is if
Baltimore Police Department if they really wanted to set up Sean Suiter take him down and then cover this thing up
they would have quickly arrested a man matching the very descript very vague description that they put out to
the public at some point and they would have pended on somebody they couldn't find a black man with a black and white
jacket they would have pended on somebody I actually want to give them a little bit of credit that they weren't
bringing forward some innocent guy that's just down on his luck that has no ability financially to defend himself
so we don't have that happening I think I I really call on a question the independent review board's findings here
Captain I don't think that they have convincingly made their argument that Sean Suter killed himself I think at
this day I'll go on record saying that I believe that the original determination
of homicide should still be investigated as such and until we have better information it remains a homicide in my
mind well sticky situation one because there is speculation that maybe he was a dirty cop
but what we do know is we have evidence of him being a good cop and we have evidence that he served and protected a
community and anybody that is going to put their life on the line to protect us we owe them something and we owe their
family something and what this what detective suitors family is owed is to know the truth
[Music] rest in peace detective Sean Suter [Music] and you should go to truecrimegarage.com
for many reasons but one of them we have our recommended page and we've recommended many books over our long
journey here today we are recommending in Pursuit the hunt for the Beltway snipers by David reichenbaugh and pursue
is a memoir detailing the pursuit and hunt for the Beltway snipers that lasted for 23 days in October of 2002 when they
terrorized the Washington Capital Region as they shot 14 people in random acts of
Pure Evil you don't have to write that title down now you can simply go to truecrimegarage.com and find that listed
on our recommended page this week on our Stitcher premium show off the Record we
talked about the Jamie Kloss case updates so you want to check that out we also discuss the TV show True Detective
and that's on Stitcher premium so if you don't have that go get it well we will see everybody back here in the garage
next week until then please be good be kind and don't let her [Music]

Detective Sean Suiter /// Part 2 /// 277

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Veteran Police Officer and Homicide Detective Sean Suiter was shot and killed while on duty in the murder plagued inner city of Baltimore. His case remains the longest unsolved murder of a Baltimore Police Officer. But the crime scene and the events surrounding shooting raise serious questions and many in the public are demanding the truth. This week we discuss the death of Detective Sean Suiter. Beer of the Week - Captain’s Log Lager by Cameron’s Brewing Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 Bottle Caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode examines Detective Sean Suiter's controversial death, exploring homicide and suicide theories amid police corruption allegations.

Key points

The Death of Detective Suitor. Exploring the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Detective Suitor.
The Suicide Theory. Delving into the complex layers of the suicide theory regarding Suitor's death.
The IRB Report Findings. The independent review board concluded that detective Suter took his own life with his own weapon.
Evidence of Suicide. The autopsy revealed a close contact wound consistent with Suter's Glock, suggesting suicide.
The Conflicting Reports. Conflicting reports about gunpowder residue raise questions about the circumstances of Suitor's death.
The Skepticism of the Public. The public's distrust of the police department complicates the investigation into Suitor's death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What happens next is very unclear.

5:04WatchNov 22, 2022

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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