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

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let's sip through the evidence and see if we can come up with a better explanation regarding the death of
detective sudor 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 Mark 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 overanalyzed and picked apart by the
media and the public to be 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 F figures visible are small and the video has
areas that appear to be out of focus or 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 sudor and banka they are at Bennett Place near the
entrance to the vacant lot now we lose sight of banka 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 that's what it looks like to me a DOT that may
be suor 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 sudor 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 banko running across
the street away from the lot to take cover specifically the whole episode between sud running into the lot and
Bowa running took about 8 seconds or less the vacant lot where sud's body was found is not in the line of sight of the
camera we are informed later that banka 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 WB TV 11 news that they saw Sutter's partner banka
walking on the sidewalk to an opening when gunfire rang out the second witness told the same news station that after
the gunfire he he saw Suitor partner in a Crouch 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 banka could not have been
the shooter who killed Shawn according to banka he called 911 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 banka 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 p.m. 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 suspect seen by Bano was released later on the night of the shooting but dispatch was
not notified of any description in the initial 911 call and in fact was told there was not a description but then an
hour after the shooting a dispatcher issued Ed a Citywide 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 Suitor radio it conveyed that
he was quote clearly in distress said Davis sutor 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 sudor 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 suor
radio never left his hand responding officers wearing body cameras turned sudor over and found him to be in grave
condition after sending sudor off to the hospital in a law enforcement vehicle officer's first concern was the
possibility that the shots came from a nearby building banka said he heard multiple gunshots but was not able to
detect their Orin and when he ran to sud's 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 per 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 so the
block was placed on lock down while officers searched for the shooter in the many nearby vacant buildings as we know
it remained on lockd down for 6 days while the police department investigated meanwhile we know that someone drove
suor to the shock trauma center got into an accident and sutor was transferred to
an ambulance despite this Dr Thomas Scalia physician and chief at the shock trauma unit told the son later that any
delay in getting sutor 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 sudor on
the ground when he was shot that would explain the dirt some of the dirt that was 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 Sutter'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 sud was subpoena 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 crime 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 Shan suder now detective gondo who we talked about
yesterday asserted specifically that Shan 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 sudor knowingly planted
the heroin in Umar burley's vehicle despite all commissioner Davis's repeated assertions that sha sudor 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 sudo
actually killed himself Steven shanning the acting us attorney said people had suggested sudor was complicit in
misconduct but said quote will never know what he knew because he's not here to speak to the
circumstances so was it possible that sudor 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 sudor 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 bezel thousands of dollars over 7 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 $300,000 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 right who said the officer never once thought of
taking his own life and spoke excitedly 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 Shan suder 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 mhm so that that's a big difference and a lot of
stuff regarding the sutor 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 suor 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 lean toward suicide as the most likely explanation by March of 2018 the AP
described sutor death as a baffling who done it with evidence pointing in two different directions murder verse
suicide sud'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 sudor was eagerly looking
forward to a peaceful retirement this is just 7 years away 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 your tracks
here but even with the last case the the officer that took his life because he stole money mhm if it if it is true that
detective sudor 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 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 M I mean you you
have to know that that's evidence that they're hiding something 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 sudor 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 lumpsum payouts
of 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 tax there would
also be workers compensation as well as any possible life insurance that they had okay
so is that it on those facts well I I think let's go into these benefits just go ahead I have a question for you okay
what does he 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 mhm 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 oh yeah I mean you you
got to question everything we're question if we're questioning Shan sudor 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
mhm because if the police department is saying hey look at first 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 M there's the there's a suspect no there's not a suspect uh sudor wasn't dirty oh
he was dirty and you're and you're going to 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 it's not coming directly from their
pockets but you know I've never been a part of those budget meetings and trust me I 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 position 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 US justice department it's a program that
provides 30 $150,000 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 Shan Suter killed himself many of those benefits to his family would be
drastically reduced if not removed all together well and 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 Shan
suder 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 sudor I'm sorry requested banka to work with him that day being a
junior part partner so Bano 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 banko was more likely to follow Sutter's Direction leaving his side to
enter the vacant lot on the schroer 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 sud 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 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 on video footage looking odd almost as as
if he's paying attention to somebody mhm and then he goes into this alley we got
three gunshots mhm 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 the where they found the bullet right and the reason why is because I
don't think necessarily that sudor 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 what 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 this 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 mhm then his arm
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 the bullet did come from his gun they have uh publicly
stated that ballistically uh they have proofed that the three shots were fired from his gun
right and so the other thing though too is we have um the measurement 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 have 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 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 right 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 it 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 I think I mean I'm this is the great thing about podcasting I'm sitting we're both doing this trying to
put our right hand toward the back of our right ear and somebody's going to walk in and think we're doing hot yoga
but or not while you can do so I would I wouldn't say that it's difficult but 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
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Captain cheers to to you and cheers to everyone else extra crispy Colonel the independent review board established to
review the investigation into Shan Sutter's death finally published its 207 page report on August 27th
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 Suitor 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
sudor and his partner for the day banka had been to Bennett Place on the previous day as well sudor told bua 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 sudor may have made up this person
named Mary right sudor and banaa thought that they saw the quote suspicious person from their unmarked vehicle at
402 p.m. but they weren't certain they decided to call it a day at that point sudor had a 5:00 meeting with his
attorney the report reveals but bka did not know this while driving away sudor told Bowa he saw the suspect in the
alley they parked and sutor stayed behind the white van parked on Bennett Place and directed Bowa to the corner of
Bennett Place and schroer street so that he could see if someone came out of the
opening to the vacant lot located on schroer street according to banka at 4:36 p.m. sudor ran towards the vacant
lot and out of view of banka as sudor disappeared from view bomea observed sudor beginning to unholster his weapon
with his right hand just prior to that sudor waved at banka the purpose of this gesture is unclear banka interpreted the
wave to signify that something was happening in the vacant lot he heard sudor yell stop stop stop police and
heard gunshots B's reporting is a little inconsistent for this next part the report reads bka ran away from the lot
and called 911 when backup arrived within 2 minutes of the call banka and the responding officer approached the
lot and found sudor on the ground rolled him over and started chest compressions just after sudor 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 p.m. Jeremy
Eldridge texted suor you have grand jury by subpoena at 1:00 p.m. in federal court and a meeting at 11:00 a.m. at
usao followed immediately by I can't stay past 6 getting no response he texted again at 4:52 p.m. dude what is
going on Shan Suter deleted later convicted officers gondo and Ward from the contacts of his phone along with 75
text and 3113 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 suitor Glock although it could not be 100% 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 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
suter'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 Sutter'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 the struggle but consistent with Police Officers Training to take a knee to stabilize
themselves when shooting sudor 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 sutor 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 the struggle based on the video and witness statements a suspect would not have enough time to disarm and kill
sudor and Escape bka didn't see anyone running away from the scene and heard suor yell stop instead of help we also
have sud's work computer the search history revealed that suor Googled Von Green Funeral on five occasions on
September 6th 2017 when sudor was laid to rest his family utilized the services of Von Green 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
uh gleaned from the investigation already right and reviewed that information together collectively as a
board as a group and came to the conclusion that Shan Suter killed himself right so 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 and investigated as such now regarding their
bullet points they do put together a a good strong argument that sudor 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 MH 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 Shan suder
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 you you know we're not the same just because we
we both work 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 it's just 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 that day the day that he took his own life he deleted that information I was
unclear on that 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 I'll Google John you know
John A's well there's also obituaries that are posted on on Funeral Parlor 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 know 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 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 yeah 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
Nonpoint 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 all right I agree with that or disagree with that
right but but since I don't I'm just throwing it out out I'm saying it's not doesn't matter to me well and 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 who 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 mhm stop or I'll shoot right so
what you know what I mean why 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 when his partner can see what's going on right they say that that's 8 seconds that makes it very
that's such a short period of time for someone to get into an altercation with this officer with sudor overpower him
three shots ring out one of them kills sudor 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 8
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 can get inside a house within 8 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 gunned 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 hand so that doesn't indicate a scuffle he 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
boom somebody's behind him they grab his arm he pulls it up accidentally pulls the trigger or purposely pulls the
trigger cuz he's 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 cuz again how old is he well he would have been um 43 years old so 43y 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 mhm it's say I mean nobody can see the dance moves I'm doing but it's possible it's very
possible 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 mhm so um it's a 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 Shan 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 I believe it to be true seem 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 sudor 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 is it doctored 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 thing that really drives me nuts or really is hard for me
to contemplate this whole suicide thing is 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 said all this stuff but he's saying no come with me get closer to the area where I'm going to uh fake
my my death you know I mean I mean think about this the they talk about all the abandoned houses the vacant houses in
that area right sudor was not a dumb guy this was a very smart detective face why
wouldn't he have said to banka hey I think I saw that guy run into that house over there I'm going to 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 going to infringe on other people's constitutional rights
to try to fight 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 beli they were looking for a shooter that's got to come
from banka 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 sudor was in pursuit of here but here's the other thing
though too who knows here I mean this is how farfetched you can get with these possibilities
what if he did see somebody right Bera he sees somebody he's saying hey look we saw somebody he might have
struggled with him we don't know if it was 8 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 mhm 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's 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 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 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 also 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 as their belief as to what happened I'm very skeptical of that 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 godamn 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 banka 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 sudor to be taken down he didn't know either I think that his statements are somewhat inconsistent not
because he's being being controlled not because there's some great Puppet Master
behind him pulling levers making him do and say things I 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 byc 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 Shan sudor take him down and then cover this thing up they would have quickly
arrested a man matching the very descri very vague description that they put out
to the public at some point and they would have pended on somebody they maybe they couldn't find a black man with a
black and white jacket they would have pended on somebody and 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 Shan suder 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 mhm 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 suter's family is owed is to know the truth rest in peace detective Shan
[Music] sudor and you should go to True Crim garage.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 riken Ball in Pursuit 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 truecrime garage.com and find find that listed on our recommended
page and this week on our Stitcher premium show off the Record we talked about the jam Claus 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 litter [Music] Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of theories about why I
thought it was an Eco move few your worse less paper no it was so you could say it faster no it's to be more iconic
must be a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare upfront prices book a service
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Detective Sean Suiter /// Part 2 /// 277

Part 2 of 2

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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

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Brief Summary

Detective Shan Sutor's death raises questions of murder versus suicide amid police corruption allegations and conflicting evidence.

Key points

Quality Sleep with Ashley. Ashley offers top mattress brands at winning prices, helping children in need.
True Crime Garage Introduction. Join Nick and the Captain as they dive into true crime stories with a drink in hand.
The Mysterious Death of Detective Sudor. Exploring the unclear circumstances surrounding Detective Sudor's death and the conflicting evidence.
The Suicide Theory. Delving into the complex suicide theory surrounding Detective Sudor's death and its implications.
Motives Behind the Death. Examining the potential motives for Detective Sudor's actions and the implications for his family.
Investigation Findings. The IRB concluded that Detective Suter took his own life with his own weapon.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What happens next is very unclear.

Describing the events surrounding the shooting

6:01WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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