Det. Sean Suiter's Case Remains Open, Despite IRB's 'Unanimous' Finding On His Suicide
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Baltimore Police Department along with the Independent Review Board discussed the findings in their report as well as items the department will address after the board's recommendations.
Interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle said the department's goal was to follow the facts.
"The hope is that Detective Suiter's family will get some clarity with this report," Tuggle said.
The Medical Examiner has IRB report and that office would have to formally decide to change death from homicide to suicide.
"The case remains an open investigation within the police department," he said. "The medical examiner would be the one to make any changes in the manner of death."
Tuggle added; "There's no case study for this particular incident. It's rare that you would ever see a homicide detective die in line of duty and have to be investigated by members of their own unit."
IRB Chair James Stewart said the police department was cooperative with the board's investigation, but that the board remained a separate group.
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Stewart called the Suiter's homicide investigation was "handicapped" because during the initially response there were many people managing the crime scene -- so the information collected was within various units of the departments.
There was unanimous support for the IRB's recommendations among the board members.
Based on the IRB's report, Stewart said the department will begin Incident Command Training to help officers respond to situations when an officer is shot.
The department should train two members of the district to be ICS planners, Stewart said the of the board's recommendations for the department, and that another police department should take over an investigation of an officer shot.
There are only 8 seconds where someone could have gotten in and out, Stewart said. Former Police Commissioner Kevin Davis felt suicide was a possibility, but was unlikely.
The chair said it's unclear whether the medical examiner knew about Suiter's upcoming GTTF testimony and were told by police at autopsy time that suicide was not a possibility.
"We stand behind this report 100 percent," Stewart said. He also said that Suiter's death was not a "hit."
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"I accept the facts as they're presented in the report," Tuggle said, but added there is still more work to be done.
Earlier in the day, Mayor Catherine Pugh addressed the IRB's report findings.
"According to this report, we've all been mislead," Pugh said at her weekly press conference.
Pugh said Wednesday morning, she agreed with some recommendations in IRB report but did not say which ones and she stopped short of saying whether she accepted finding Det Sean Suiter committed suicide.
Pugh said she wanted to further review findings and hear from IRB members.
She said the police department needs to be reformed from top to bottom and the next commissioner would have full authority to do that.
Pugh apologized to the residents of West Harlem Park, the community that was restricted from their homes and "held at bay" during the Suiter investigation.
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