HBO Max show We Own This City released an episode covering the death of Sean Suiter and, amid ongoing controversy surrounding the Baltimore detective’s passing, the show’s co-creator has said viewers should make up their own minds over what exactly happened.
Detective Suiter died while on duty on November 16, 2017, but the cause of his death remains a matter of contention today.
Now the HBO miniseries’ latest episode – on Monday, May 30th 2022 – has got viewers talking about the case again.
WHO WAS SEAN SUITER AND HOW DID HE DIE?
Sean Suiter was a detective at the Baltimore Police Department. He began his career as a patrolman and drug investigator and was made a homicide detective in 2015.
Sean died while he and partner David Bomenka were investigating a homicide in the Bennett Place neighbourhood of Baltimore. During the investigation, Sean walked away from his partner and was later found on the ground with a bullet in his head.
The Baltimore Police Department detective died from a gunshot wound to the head the day before he was due to testify in court in the Gun Trace Task Force case, whose corruption scandal is explored in HBO‘s We Own This City.
Suiter was shot after he darted into a vacant lot in a neighborhood in West Baltimore. Police later claimed Suiter was shot with his own gun which was found underneath his body, per the Baltimore Sun, and his death was officially ruled a homicide by a medical examiner.
Sean passed away at the University of Maryland Medical Center a day later. His death sparked a massive debate with lack of evidence making it difficult to ascertain his cause of death.
Sean died just a day before he was due to testify in a case involving eight officers of the Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force.
INDEPENDENT REVIEW BOARD RULED IT WAS SUICIDE
The Baltimore Sun reports officers said Sean had been shot with his own gun, which was found under his body. However, his death was officially ruled as homicide by a medical examiner.
As reported by Newsweek, though, an Independent Review Board investigated Sean’s death and labelled it suicide – something his family vehemently refute to this day.
WE OWN THIS CITY CREATOR SAYS VIEWERS SHOULD DECIDE AFTER SEAN SUITER EPISODE
The show’s co-creator David Simon added: “I think for the sake of viewers we should just let people experience what the known moments are, what was witnessed, and let people decide as they will.
“If you’re asking me individually… I think fundamentally, once you read the independent reviews, once you walk the ground, once you talk to the investigators, once you look at what was in that file, and what reasons they had for being out there, and what the physical evidence is, this man took his own life.
“It’s not as satisfying, it’s not as dramatic as the idea of him being assassinated because he was going to testify in front of the grand jury, or all the other narratives that you could possibly conjure, but it’s the one that actually fits the evidence.”
“I think everyone sees it through the prism of their own politics, maybe even more so than they see through the prism of factual evidence.”
Actor Jamie Hector, who portrays Sean Suiter, said: “I feel like the show talks about exactly what it knows about, you know… this is what happened with Sean up until the point we don’t know what happened to Sean.”
