Police Still Holding Scene Where Detective Was Murdered
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Five days later, the scene where a Baltimore police detective was fatally shot is still an active crime scene.
It was released early Monday, but then expanded again as detectives and the ATF honed in on an alley, bringing shovels, rakes, and wheelbarrows back there.
Both the Harlem Park community and police are hopeful this investigation is coming to an end.
Only WJZ was there as Baltmore PD Commissioner Kevin Davis made his way back to the crime scene days after detective Sean Suiter was murdered.
What was once cordoned off for blocks, has now decreased significantly, as the community looks to get back to a sense of normalcy.
"No one wants to be in the middle of this. No one," said one west Baltimore resident.
For those who live in the thick of the crime scene, it's been anything but ordinary.
"All day, all night," said one woman who lives in the Harlem Park neighborhood.
Residents have been dealing with police activity around the clock for nearly a week.
"All night long, sirens, helicopters. It's crazy. I can't take it much more," one of the residents said.
Some are having to show identification just to make it home.
The ACLU has criticized the city, saying residents deserve a clear explanation as to why this unprecedented action has been taken.
"It's just sickening. This is just sickening, seriously," a resident said.
The commissioner says he can certainly empathize.
"I understand the heightened sense of scrutiny that's associated with holding a crime scene this many days, particularly when it impacts a residential community, I'm very sensitive to that," Davis said.
But with detectives finding new, significant evidence at the scene Monday, Davis says this is exactly why he held it for so long.
"I did it based on the necessity to close this heinous case, and I'm encouraged by recent developments, " he said.
The commissioner added that the move to hold the crime scene was "absolutely necessary," and that he's hopeful it will be fully released by Tuesay.
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