BALTIMORE -- Baltimore Police Det. Sean Suiter was an 18-year veteran of the force who spent the last two years investigating homicides during the city’s historic spike in killings.
Police say Suiter was investigating another killing in West Baltimore Wednesday afternoon when he was shot in the head. He was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where officials say he died just after noon Thursday.
Suiter was married, with two children.
Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said Wednesday night that the detective “was just doing his job on behalf of this city” when he was shot.
“And that’s what he’s been doing for 18 years,” Davis said.
Police say Suiter was working in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore on Wednesday to when he saw a man acting suspiciously. The detective approached the man, police said, and was shot. Police continued to search for the shooter Thursday.
Rick Willard, a retired officer, led a drug squad in the Western District of which Suiter was a member.
“He was not only a good cop, he was smart and smiled a lot,” Willard said. “Everyone that worked with him loved him. Even when you were down he would smile what his mischievous smile and make everyone happy and feel at ease.
“He is one of the best officers I ever worked with, and it breaks my heart.”
Capt. Torran Burrus supervised Suiter at two different points during his career, when he was a drug officer and later when he moved onto a district detective unit.
“He had a good keen eye for narcotics activity,” Burrus said.
He said Suiter was known for his good nature. The detective had a “contagious smile” and penchant for cracking jokes.
Former Baltimore prosecutor Jeremy Eldridge called Suiter “a man with integrity.”
“He was one person you could always count on,” Eldridge said. “Every time I called him, he answered.”
Suiter joined the city’s homicide unit in 2015. The first case he closed was the killing of Kendal Fenwick, a young father gunned down in Park Heights. The trial of suspect Devante Brim in June ended in a mistrial. He is scheduled to be tried again next year.
Suiter is also listed as the arresting detective for Elias Josael Jimenes Alvarado, the Salvadoran national convicted of killing two women in Northwest Baltimore in 2016. A jury in August found Alvarado guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Ranarda Williams and Annquinette Dates.
Before joining the homicide unit, Suiter worked in the citywide shootings unit, which investigates non-fatal shootings.
In an email to the department, Davis said Suiter’s “tragic death will forever impact the BPD.”
“Each of you go out there and put your lives on the line every single day,” Davis wrote. “The importance of your sacrifice, and Sean’s, can’t be overstated.”
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