Thousands of police officers and citizens gathered in Baltimore Wednesday for the funeral service of Detective Sean Suiter, the second law enforcement officer to be killed in the city this year.
Several freeways closed for over an hour as the funeral procession neared Mount Pleasant Church, The Baltimore Sun reported. Suiter’s children and several others took to the pulpit inside the church to praise the man as a father and an 18-year veteran of the police force.
Detective Jonathan Jones, a member of Suiter’s squad, also took time to read from Scripture. Suiter, 43, was killed by a gunshot to the head on Nov. 15 while investigating a 2016 triple homicide. He is the 137th Baltimore police officer to ever be killed in the line of duty. Police have yet to find his killer.
Suiter’s oldest son, Marquis, spoke to his parents’ relationship and the strength of their family.
“You guys were best friends,” he said. “I strive to have that in life.”
He then read a poem, written as if his father were speaking to his mother.
“Don’t feel guilty that you have life that was denied to me. Heaven is truly beautiful, just you wait and see,” Suiter’s son read. “So live your life, be free and know with every breath you take, you’ll be taking one for me.”
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Police Commissioner Kevin Davis called Suiter a hero. He recounted how an 80-year-old woman once stopped by the police station give him a birthday cared, thanking him for how well he’d treated her.
“Suiter gave, and the Baltimore Police Department gives each and every day,” Davis said to applause. “It’s time for the local and national narrative to start reflecting that reality.”
With Suiter’s killer still on the loose, Minister Vernon Hill appealed to God to bring the man to justice quickly, for the sake of both the city and Suiter’s family.
“There’s a lot going on around what took place,” Minister Vernon Hill said during an opening prayer. “But we’re confident, Father, that you know, and those who perpetrated the crime will not get away.”
Before leaving the stage, Marquis pointed at his father’s casket.
“That man right there,” he said. “is a great man.”
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