Baltimore cop killed right before he was going to testify against other cops

A Baltimore police officer was killed the day before he was scheduled to testify before a grand jury against a squad of indicted fellow officers, the city’s police commissioner said Wednesday.

Homicide detective Sean Suiter and his partner were investigating a shooting that took place days earlier when Suiter saw someone acting suspiciously in a vacant lot. The 43-year-old detective approached the suspect, and was shot in the head, The Baltimore Sun reported.

It appears Suiter was killed with his own service weapon, and there was evidence of a struggle before the shooting, the newspaper reported.

Federal authorities had informed Suiter that he was not a target of their investigation into the city’s Gun Trace Task Force, and the officer’s killing does not appear to be connected to his pending testimony.

{mosads}

The Gun Trace Task Force was responsible for getting illegal guns off the streets. Eight members of the police task force are accused of shaking down citizens and conspiring with drug dealers, The Sun reported.

Suiter was set to testify in the case about an incident from several years ago.

Suiter’s death is the first of an on-duty officer by a suspect in 10 years, the newspaper reported.