Perhaps after the ugly ugly Freddie Gray incident, the Commissioner feels he has to protect the "integrity" of the Baltimore Police Department. The mere scope of what has been uncovered and the KNOWN number of law enforcement employees involved is staggering in itself. To be tied so closely to a known criminal enterprise like the Shropshire Group has to be an embarrassment that won't easily be forgotten. I'm wondering how many cases will have to be re-tried, how many convictions overturned etc. because of the integrity of the officers involved with crime scenes and evidence removal? When you know you have at least one officer planting heroin inside a car, who knows what else they would be willing to do. I don't know that murder is on that list, but I'm not ruling it out.
Now, according to the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and Commissioner Davis are battling over whose idea it was to get the FBI involved in this case. The Mayor says Davis only conceded because City Councilman Bernard Jack Young suggested they needed outside involvement and the FBI was a natural and neutral choice. Davis says he was already considering the FBI before the Councilman's suggestion and the Mayor wants some credit for the suggestion as well. What a bunch of children. Seems to me (an outsider ) that the commish may have been a little afraid of what would be uncovered and that he wouldn't find out in time to put a spin on it. How far up does the corruption go? Even if you take the murder out of the equation, the corruption itself damages the entire BPD and it's reputation and it will be hard to overcome all of the allegations that will follow. Once you've opened Pandora's box, watch out!!
All of the aforementioned city officials have been in contact with Det. Suiter's widow, which is commendable but I can't help but feel they are all in competition with each other instead of working together to find the real killer. I want to see an actual re enactment of what went down in that vacant lot. Has that been done, and if so - why the hell not? It's easy enough to do. The crime scene area may have surveillance cameras because it was known to be a dangerous neighborhood. In fact, Suiter and his partner that day were said to be "canvasing" for leads for a triple homicide that occurred last December in that area.
Commissioner Davis has already contradicted himself on several occasions about this incident. He initially told the media there was a "brief but violent" struggle between Suiter and his assailant as the unknown subject managed to get Suiter's police issued gun out of it's holster - something I'm told is very difficult to do. Later, the commish said there was nothing to indicate a struggle, and that's when the suicide possibility came out. That was unbelievable to me - how could he do that to the Suiter family? How would that even play out? Suiter and partner approach suspicious man, Suiter hands him his gun and asks him to shoot him in the head? Or they approach and Suiter takes the gun out and shoots himself in front of the unknown suspicious man. Neither theory makes sense at all. That sounds so desperate that it makes me a very suspicious lady! I'd better steer clear of any vacant lots.
Take the suicide theory off the table right now. If it was suicide, suspicious unknown subject is a witness and so is the partner. As far as I know neither has come forward with any mention of suicide. Big error on the commish's part. Why is he so desperate to point everything away from the next day Federal Grand Jury testimony? It seems like the obvious place to start. There are a lot of people in the BPD indicted, and there may be many more we don't even know about. Then there's the Shropshire organization. Are they looking hard at them? After all, they control the heroin distribution in the Baltimore area. That's their area to protect.
The Baltimore Sun has the full transcript of Commissioner Davis press conference held on Friday. In it, he mentions "in fact the FBI, ATF, and DEA have all been embedded into the investigation from the very beginning". Is that true? He also acknowledges that "Detective Suiter was scheduled to appear before a Federal Grand Jury the day after he was killed pursuant to his knowledge of facts regarding a 2010 crime indicted just yesterday as part of the "Broken Boundaries" corruption investigation". He further stated that he was informed that Detective Suiter was never a target of the corruption investigation and there was no information to connect his murder to the upcoming testimony. Of course he's going to say that but how can he really? I'd imagine there are a ton of people who need to be interrogated. Someone in the Baltimore PD knows something - there must be a connection.
A reporter then asked him about his comments about a physical confrontation and potentially a self inflicted gunshot wound. He/she asked him to comment on that angle of the investigation but he would not. Instead, he said they will go where the evidence leads them. The FBI is trying to enhance a 2-3 second radio transmission from Det. Suiter that is unintelligible - when he was found, he still had the radio in his hand. Hard to kill yourself while calling in a distress call. Suicide. I still can't get over that suggestion! Seems ridiculous when you look at the entire scene doesn't it?
Reporters asked other questions, but the answers are what we've been hearing all along. There was no DNA evidence or fingerprints found on Suiter's gun. They do know he was shot with his own weapon, so who took the time to wipe it clean or did the killer wear gloves? Commissioner Davis said it's not unusual to not have DNA evidence or fingerprints on these types of cases. Ugh. If there was a struggle and Suiter's clothes were disrupted in some way, wouldn't there be a chance of touch DNA? Again, maybe the unknown suspicious vacant lot man was wearing gloves. But I don't buy that Suiter's partner for the day could not provide a detailed description of the man who killed his fellow officer. Too many things go not add up, and that's where all the problems begin.
This is not going to go away. People out there care. I care, and I don't live anywhere near Baltimore - in fact, I'm in California! But Detective Suiter gave the Baltimore PD 18 years of his life, he was a married man with five children and did not deserve to be shot with his own weapon in a vacant lot. It angers me because I truly feel he was killed for something he knew. If that's true, the police share the blame for his death. Here is a link to the whole press conference:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-transcript-bpd-update-20171201-story.html
We are going to keep digging until the truth is revealed. Detective Suiter deserves justice and so does his family. Check back for updates because I'll be following this until it's resolved. Have a great week!
