Baltimore cop Sean Suiter was going to testify about how colleagues used him as a pawn to frame an enemy drug dealer they allegedly planted heroin on in 2010 when he was murdered, it has been revealed.
The revelation has finally prompted Baltimore Police Department, no longer able to deny the mounting conflicts of interest it brings, to turn the investigation into his death over to the FBI.
Suiter, 43, was shot dead with his own gun while canvassing a neighborhood in Harlem Park on November 16.
The father-of-three was wearing a suit and had been going door-to-door to speak to residents about a triple murder the previous year.
His partner has since described how he was shot in an alleyway after being lured into it by a man who was behaving suspiciously. No other description of his killer has been given and he has not been found.
Suiter was due to testify the next day at the trial of seven former Baltimore PD colleagues who are accused of drug dealing, stealing money and widespread racketeering while running the Gun Trace Task Force, a disbanded unit of the department.
He was going to give evidence about a 2010 search he performed on the car of convicted drug dealer Umar Burley after a high speed car chase which Wayne Jenkins, one of the defendants, allegedly asked him to carry out.
Burley, a prominent crime figure who prosecutors had been desperately trying to pin down, was jailed for 15 years as a result of what Suiter found in his car - 28 grams of heroin, neatly stuffed into 32 individual packets.
Prosecutors now say Jenkins, determined to put Burley away, planted the drugs in his vehicle after he crashed it at the end of the chase to ensure a heavy sentence.
He then asked Suiter, who was 'clueless to his plot', to look inside the vehicle, knowing he would find the heroin and that it would be enough to finally see Burley go away for a substantial amount of time, they claimed.
Though he had been convicted of drug offenses in the past, on the night in question, prosecutors say Burley was innocent. He nonetheless spent seven years in jail, half of a 15-year sentence, for the discovery that Suiter made.
Now, not only is the US Attorney's Office in Maryland asking that Jenkins be convicted of additional charges but they also want Burley's drug conviction for the 2010 raid to be vacated - a humiliating request for an office which spent years tirelessly trying to put him behind bars.
On Friday, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis revealed that the crime is what Suiter planned to tell the federal grand jury about when he was killed as he asked the FBI to take over the murder probe.
Jenkins now faces racketeering charges for his role in the alleged corruption scheme and an additional charge of the Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification of Records for the 2010 incident. If convicted, he could face an extra 20 years behind bars on top of any conviction yielded from the corruption trial.
For local investigators, it further complicates the ongoing murder investigation into Suiter's death.
In a letter to the FBI on Friday, Baltimore Commissioner Kevin Davis said: '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.
'The circumstances surrounding Detective Suiter's killing are significantly complicated by the fact that he was to appear before a federal grand jury the following day.
'I am growing increasingly uncomfortable that my homicide detectives do not know all of the facts known to the FBI or to the US Attorney's Office that could, if revealed to us, assist in furthering this murder investigation.
'I respectfully request the FBI to investigate the murder of Detective Sean Suiter,' he said in a letter to the bureau on Friday.
Davis went on to tell CBS Baltimore that he stands behind the US Attorney's Office and believes Jenkins is guilty. 'This guy was able to operate with impunity on this police department for far too long,' he said.
Jenkins remains behind bars along with his co-defendants in the corruption trial which is scheduled for January 2018. Daniel Hersl, Evodio Hendrix, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor, Maurice Ward, and Momodu Gando are also facing charges.
Police have still not honed in on a description of Suiter's killer.
On November 16, he was in the Harlem Park neighborhood with his partner Det. David Bomenka. The pair were going door-to-door to speak to neighbors about a triple homicide which happened the previous year.
Det. Bomenka says they both noticed a man behaving suspiciously in the area but ignored him
When they saw him for a second time, he said Suiter was lured by him into an alleyway.
Bomenka claims he then heard gunshots and took cover, a claim which is verified by private surveillance cameras and backed up by sources cited by The Baltimore Sun.
After the shots had finished, he found his partner in the alleyway with a single gunshot wound to his head. His gun was next to him and had been fired three times in total, meaning the suspect was also likely shot.
The revelation has finally prompted Baltimore Police Department, no longer able to deny the mounting conflicts of interest it brings, to turn the investigation into his death over to the FBI.
Suiter, 43, was shot dead with his own gun while canvassing a neighborhood in Harlem Park on November 16.
The father-of-three was wearing a suit and had been going door-to-door to speak to residents about a triple murder the previous year.
His partner has since described how he was shot in an alleyway after being lured into it by a man who was behaving suspiciously. No other description of his killer has been given and he has not been found.
Suiter was due to testify the next day at the trial of seven former Baltimore PD colleagues who are accused of drug dealing, stealing money and widespread racketeering while running the Gun Trace Task Force, a disbanded unit of the department.
He was going to give evidence about a 2010 search he performed on the car of convicted drug dealer Umar Burley after a high speed car chase which Wayne Jenkins, one of the defendants, allegedly asked him to carry out.
Burley, a prominent crime figure who prosecutors had been desperately trying to pin down, was jailed for 15 years as a result of what Suiter found in his car - 28 grams of heroin, neatly stuffed into 32 individual packets.
Prosecutors now say Jenkins, determined to put Burley away, planted the drugs in his vehicle after he crashed it at the end of the chase to ensure a heavy sentence.
He then asked Suiter, who was 'clueless to his plot', to look inside the vehicle, knowing he would find the heroin and that it would be enough to finally see Burley go away for a substantial amount of time, they claimed.
Though he had been convicted of drug offenses in the past, on the night in question, prosecutors say Burley was innocent. He nonetheless spent seven years in jail, half of a 15-year sentence, for the discovery that Suiter made.
Now, not only is the US Attorney's Office in Maryland asking that Jenkins be convicted of additional charges but they also want Burley's drug conviction for the 2010 raid to be vacated - a humiliating request for an office which spent years tirelessly trying to put him behind bars.
On Friday, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis revealed that the crime is what Suiter planned to tell the federal grand jury about when he was killed as he asked the FBI to take over the murder probe.
Jenkins now faces racketeering charges for his role in the alleged corruption scheme and an additional charge of the Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification of Records for the 2010 incident. If convicted, he could face an extra 20 years behind bars on top of any conviction yielded from the corruption trial.
For local investigators, it further complicates the ongoing murder investigation into Suiter's death.
In a letter to the FBI on Friday, Baltimore Commissioner Kevin Davis said: '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.
'The circumstances surrounding Detective Suiter's killing are significantly complicated by the fact that he was to appear before a federal grand jury the following day.
'I am growing increasingly uncomfortable that my homicide detectives do not know all of the facts known to the FBI or to the US Attorney's Office that could, if revealed to us, assist in furthering this murder investigation.
'I respectfully request the FBI to investigate the murder of Detective Sean Suiter,' he said in a letter to the bureau on Friday.
Davis went on to tell CBS Baltimore that he stands behind the US Attorney's Office and believes Jenkins is guilty. 'This guy was able to operate with impunity on this police department for far too long,' he said.
Jenkins remains behind bars along with his co-defendants in the corruption trial which is scheduled for January 2018. Daniel Hersl, Evodio Hendrix, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor, Maurice Ward, and Momodu Gando are also facing charges.
Police have still not honed in on a description of Suiter's killer.
On November 16, he was in the Harlem Park neighborhood with his partner Det. David Bomenka. The pair were going door-to-door to speak to neighbors about a triple homicide which happened the previous year.
Det. Bomenka says they both noticed a man behaving suspiciously in the area but ignored him
When they saw him for a second time, he said Suiter was lured by him into an alleyway.
Bomenka claims he then heard gunshots and took cover, a claim which is verified by private surveillance cameras and backed up by sources cited by The Baltimore Sun.
After the shots had finished, he found his partner in the alleyway with a single gunshot wound to his head. His gun was next to him and had been fired three times in total, meaning the suspect was also likely shot.
