FBI won’t take over investigation of detective’s slaying

Suiter was attacked while investigating a 2016 triple homicide with his partner in a high-crime neighbourhood. Davis said Suiter approached a “suspicious” man in a vacant lot between row houses, leading to a violent confrontation in which he was shot with his own gun. His partner can be seen on private surveillance video taking cover across the street, according to Davis.

For weeks, Davis has repeatedly said his department had no reason to believe Suiter’s death was connected to his pending testimony, but he also has stressed that investigators are not ruling out anything.

He sent a formal request on Dec. 1 asking the FBI to take over the investigation. In his request to the FBI director, Davis said the investigation was “significantly complicated by the fact that he was to appear before a grand jury the following day.”

On Wednesday, he told reporters that he took the “unusual step” of asking the FBI to lead the investigation “primarily because of the extraordinary circumstances associated with the death” of Suiter and because he knows that many people “think there is corruption involved in this.”

“It was out of an abundance of caution. I wanted the credibility to be at its very highest level,” said Davis, adding that he has full confidence in his department and Baltimore has “the best detectives” anywhere.

There have been no arrests, despite a $215,000 reward.

Davis said there is “zero evidence” to support some speculation that the homicide detective staged a suicide. And he stressed that the FBI does not think that Suiter’s death “has anything to do with that pending testimony.”

“If they did I have no doubt in my mind that the FBI would have taken this case,” he said, adding that “what we have left before us is a murder committed by a yet-to-be-unidentified perpetrator.”

He emphasized that the Suiter investigation was an active investigation.

FBI agents and other federal authorities have been assisting Baltimore police in the high-profile homicide investigation for weeks.

Suiter’s widow, Nicole, also wanted the FBI to lead the investigation into her husband’s death, according to Davis and Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh. Davis said she was aware of the FBI’s decision.

___

David McFadden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmcfadd

David McFadden, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

FBI won’t take over investigation of detective’s slaying

What's Happening