Detective dies after being shot on patrol

BALTIMORE—A Baltimore homicide detective died Thursday less than 24 hours after he was shot in the head while working in a neighborhood of vacant lots and boarded-up row houses.

At a news conference outside a hospital, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis told reporters that 43-year-old Sean Suiter, an 18-year veteran of the department, was pronounced dead shortly after noon. He had been on full life support at a hospital since getting shot once in the head by a gunman late Wednesday afternoon.

Suiter was shot by a man he approached in a vacant lot in a particularly troubled area of West Baltimore, according to Davis. He and a partner, both dressed in suits as is standard for Baltimore detectives, were investigating a 2016 homicide that took place in the area. Davis said Suiter approached the man because he was “acting suspiciously.”

“The shooter knows what he did and he knows who he did it to: A Baltimore police detective,” the commissioner said.

Rewards totaling $169,000 by early Thursday evening have been offered for information catching the shooter, but Davis said “it shouldn’t take 69 cents” for anyone to come forward to help “bring this heartless, ruthless, soulless killer to justice.”

Davis said the shooter might have been wounded in the confrontation and authorities were canvassing doctor’s offices and hospitals.