Speaker 1: A quick reminder. All episodes are available now with a subscription.
Speaker 1: To subscribe, go to True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1: It's just two ninety nine a month, half the price
Speaker 1: of a Cafe Lotte. Please follow us on Instagram, TikTok,
Speaker 1: and YouTube at Orbit Media FM.
Speaker 2: Previously on Bad Cops, an elite unit of police officers
Speaker 2: has gone rogue in the city of Baltimore. They're called
Speaker 2: the Gun Trace task Force and their leader is Sergeant
Speaker 2: Wayne Jenkins. Their job is to get illegal weapons off
Speaker 2: the streets, but these officers have also been stealing money
Speaker 2: and drugs, planting evidence, and framing people. The FBI has
Speaker 2: been on their tail for months, using secret wiretaps to
Speaker 2: build their case against the squad. A federal swat team
Speaker 2: finally arrests the officers in an elaborate takedown with the
Speaker 2: Baltimore Police Department.
Speaker 3: I was probably five or six feet away from Wayne Jenkins,
Speaker 3: and I stared at him right in the eye, and
Speaker 3: he looked right back at me, right through me, as
Speaker 3: if to say f U.
Speaker 2: As news of the arrest spreads, some of the victims
Speaker 2: of the task Force catch it on TV.
Speaker 1: His face popped up and I say that's him.
Speaker 4: That's the guy that took my money.
Speaker 5: You know, this guy was working on the Baltimore City
Speaker 5: for yeas nobody.
Speaker 6: You don't believe me.
Speaker 2: And as the cops start turning on each other, the
Speaker 2: prosecution learns of an incident years earlier when heroin was
Speaker 2: planted in a man's car. Another officer is set to
Speaker 2: testify about what really happened that day, but he's found
Speaker 2: shot to death in a West Baltimore alley. There's a
Speaker 2: frenzy of speculation he.
Speaker 1: Was killed the day before he was scheduled to testify
Speaker 1: in a case against indicted Baltimore officers.
Speaker 2: I'm Jessica Lewson and this is Bad Cops from the
Speaker 2: BBC World Service, The True Story of Baltimore's Gun Trace
Speaker 2: Task Force, Part six, The Fallout. It's November fifteenth, twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: hours before he's shot. Detective Sean Suitor and his partner
Speaker 2: are out driving in an area of West Baltimore. Suddenly,
Speaker 2: Suitor tells his partner to pull over. He's just seen
Speaker 2: a suspicious looking man in a black and white jacket
Speaker 2: loitering near an alleyway and he wants to check him out.
Speaker 2: He tells his colleague to circle around to the other
Speaker 2: end of the alley to see if they can flush
Speaker 2: him out. They split up. As the partner's walking around
Speaker 2: the block, he hears Suitor shouting stop police, then three gunshots.
Speaker 7: Signal thirteen.
Speaker 4: Signal thirteen, all reporting as a partner got shot.
Speaker 2: Police backup quickly arrives, but it's a chaotic scene.
Speaker 8: We do not know where he shot cap We had
Speaker 8: a lot of vague locations.
Speaker 2: Detective Suitor is found face down in a dusty, vacant
Speaker 2: lot with a single gunshot wound to the head. He's
Speaker 2: rushed to the hospital, but it's too late.
Speaker 3: Good afternoon, just after noon today, eighteen year veteran homicide
Speaker 3: detective Sean Suiter was pronounced dead, forty three years old, married.
Speaker 2: There's no video of the suspect, only a vague description
Speaker 2: from police Commissioner Kevin Davis.
Speaker 3: He is only described as an adult African American male
Speaker 3: wearing a black jacket with a white stripe on the
Speaker 3: black jacket.
Speaker 2: The police response is overwhelming. They flood the area with cops.
Speaker 2: They block off all the streets. Residents are even barred
Speaker 2: from returning to their own homes. Suitor had been set
Speaker 2: to testify before a grand jury about Sergeant Wayne Jenkins,
Speaker 2: the leader of the Gun Trace Task Force. He was
Speaker 2: due to give his account of a fatal car crash
Speaker 2: involving Jenkins seven years before, an elderly man named Elbert
Speaker 2: Davis was killed and another driver was sent to prison
Speaker 2: over thirty two grams of heroin found in his car
Speaker 2: at the scene of the wreck. That driver, Umar Burley,
Speaker 2: always insisted Jenkins and his crew planted the heroine, and
Speaker 2: now that Jenkins and the rest of the task force
Speaker 2: had been arrested, prosecutors believe him. But there's an argument
Speaker 2: about who planted those drugs, Was it Jenkins or one
Speaker 2: of the other detectives at the scene that day. One
Speaker 2: of them was Detective Sean Suitor. Appearance in front of
Speaker 2: the grand jury was meant to determine what really happened,
Speaker 2: but Suitor never makes it to the grand jury. No
Speaker 2: one we'll ever hear what he was going to say.
Speaker 2: The city of Baltimore is gripped with conspiracy theories. There
Speaker 2: are even claims this was a professional hit that someone
Speaker 2: in the police department wanted Suitor silenced. But details trickling
Speaker 2: out of the investigation into his death begin to paint
Speaker 2: a more complicated picture. Despite a massive manhunt, the suspect
Speaker 2: in the shooting, a black man in a black jacket,
Speaker 2: never materializes, and then their Suitor's gun it's determined to
Speaker 2: be the weapon that killed him. The Baltimore Police Department
Speaker 2: orders an independent inquiry. The panel's conclusion is shocking and controversial.
Speaker 7: An independent review board finds Baltimore Police detective Shawn Suitor
Speaker 7: likely committed sue as and a detailed report released last night.
Speaker 2: Side the report says that Suitor staged his death to
Speaker 2: look like a murder. It says he couldn't face whatever
Speaker 2: he was about to say on that witness stand. They
Speaker 2: call his death a final act of quiet desperation.
Speaker 9: There are a lot of you out there who refuse
Speaker 9: to believe this.
Speaker 6: Others think there's more to this about what.
Speaker 2: We should know. For Shawn Suitor's widow, Nicole issues her
Speaker 2: own statement.
Speaker 8: My husband did not commit suicide. I will not accept
Speaker 8: the untimely death of Sean is nothing other than a
Speaker 8: murder which is being covered up for reasons unknown to
Speaker 8: me or my family.
Speaker 2: Shawn Suitor's death remains incredibly divisive so far, no evidence
Speaker 2: has come to light that settles once and for all
Speaker 2: the question of what happened in that vacant lot. His
Speaker 2: death remains an open investigation. This mystery hangs heavy over
Speaker 2: the city as the trial of the Gun Trace Task
Speaker 2: Force draws closer. Bail bondsman and convicted cocaine dealer Donnie's
Speaker 2: Stepp has been in a secret partnership with Sergeant Wayne
Speaker 2: Jenkins for years, selling drugs that Jenkins was stealing from work.
Speaker 2: But ever since he saw a handcuffed Jenkins being marched
Speaker 2: out of Internal Affairs on TV, he's been sweating.
Speaker 10: I'm looking at the window looking for the FBI. I'm
Speaker 10: saying to myself, how aren't they here?
Speaker 2: Steps already read the indictments against the task Force, and
Speaker 2: he's been trying to get anything incriminating out of his house.
Speaker 2: And it's not just drugs that he's worried about. Jenkins
Speaker 2: also sold him a few high end wristwatches part of
Speaker 2: the proceeds from the robberies.
Speaker 10: There was one watch in particular. Once I read the indictment,
Speaker 10: that watch really bothered me. I didn't want to get
Speaker 10: caught with that watch. I lived on a waterfront property
Speaker 10: had a long pier in the back that went across
Speaker 10: to Chesapeake Bay. I went to the end of that
Speaker 10: peer and through that Watts.
Speaker 2: One evening, just after midnight, Donnie steps in his kitchen.
Speaker 10: My daughter's asleep upstairs, and the door exploded and in
Speaker 10: comes to the FBI in Baltimore County undercovering narcotics officers.
Speaker 10: So there they was.
Speaker 2: At the time of the Gun Trace Task Force takedown,
Speaker 2: Donnie step wasn't even on the FBI radar. But once
Speaker 2: the Feds come crashing through his door, Donnie starts to
Speaker 2: think his old friend has been ratting him out.
Speaker 10: He drew first blood, as Rambo says, now you drew
Speaker 10: first blood, and here we go. Now we're going to
Speaker 10: burn it down, and that's what I did.
Speaker 2: Step flips on Jenkins, and when he does, he's all in.
Speaker 2: He turns over the photos and video he's taken of
Speaker 2: Jenkins during their crime spree. He even tells the FBI
Speaker 2: where to find certain drugs that they'd missed while searching
Speaker 2: his house, and he also shows them where they can
Speaker 2: find that high end wristwatch he threw off the pier
Speaker 2: months earlier.
Speaker 10: They wanted that watch because they thought that it was
Speaker 10: a part of a major robber. I didn't think the
Speaker 10: FBI would find it. They come right around Christmas time.
Speaker 10: It was very embarrassing in neighbors, and it's at that
Speaker 10: I'd probably think I'm looking for dead bodies under my pier.
Speaker 10: They come up. It took him four five hours, but
Speaker 10: they found that.
Speaker 2: Wise, when the investigators checked the serial number, they realized
Speaker 2: it belongs to Ronald Hamilton, one of the gun Tray's
Speaker 2: Task Force robbery victims. The once united front of the
Speaker 2: Gun Trace Task Force crumbles one by one, four of
Speaker 2: the detectives, among them Jamel Rayam and Momodu Gondo, agree
Speaker 2: to admit to their crimes. They plead guilty. Wayne Jenkins
Speaker 2: has been holding out until Donny step starts selling the
Speaker 2: FBI everything he knows. With just two weeks to go
Speaker 2: before trial, Jenkins finally pleads guilty, but two of the
Speaker 2: officers from the unit deny the charges against them, which
Speaker 2: means the case will go to trial. The crimes at
Speaker 2: the Gun Trace Task Force will be discussed in open court,
Speaker 2: and police officers will testify against their former brothers in blue.
Speaker 2: The trial begins on a weirdly warm January day in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. It's taking place in the Federal Court, a tall,
Speaker 2: blank looking building near downtown Baltimore. I'm there covering the
Speaker 2: trial for the BBC, sitting in the gallery with the
Speaker 2: other reporters, just a few rows from the families of
Speaker 2: the officers. The first witness is one of the task
Speaker 2: Force detectives, Maurice Ward. In court, he's wearing a green
Speaker 2: prison jumpsuit and a long, dark beard. He tells the
Speaker 2: jury how the squad would regularly steal cash from people,
Speaker 2: how they carried bb guns to plant if they ever
Speaker 2: injured or killed someone. But it's when former detective Jamel
Speaker 2: Raham takes the stand that one of the biggest mysteries
Speaker 2: of the case is resolved. The investigation into the gun
Speaker 2: Trayce task Force was sparked by the discovery of a
Speaker 2: mysterious GPS tracker. It was found under the car of
Speaker 2: a drug dealer in suburban Baltimore. On the witness stand,
Speaker 2: Ram admits that he put the GPS tracker on the
Speaker 2: dealer car to track his movements so he could rob
Speaker 2: him when he wasn't home. Then he kicked the guy's
Speaker 2: door down, with Gondu outside his lookout, stole his heroine
Speaker 2: and a gun and sold it all back on the
Speaker 2: street disgrace. Detective Jamel Ram is an emotional witness on
Speaker 2: the stand. He retells the night of the car accident
Speaker 2: caused by the squad, the one they fled without stopping.
Speaker 2: Federal trials are not recorded. This is from Ram's transcript.
Speaker 11: It was bad. I mean, none of us stopped to
Speaker 11: render aid or see if anyone was heard. And it
Speaker 11: could have been any of us, could have been any
Speaker 11: of your guys, or my mother or father, but we
Speaker 11: just we just didn't stop.
Speaker 2: The jury hears from Donald's step Wayne Jenkins, one time
Speaker 2: drug partner, and it also hears from around a dozen
Speaker 2: of the squad's victims. Several of them admit to selling
Speaker 2: drugs at the time of their Yes, it's a strange
Speaker 2: scene watching self confessed drug dealers testifying against sworn police officers.
Speaker 2: It's like the whole system's been turned on its head
Speaker 2: and something else stands out too. All but one of
Speaker 2: the victims who testify are black, and they're not all
Speaker 2: tied to the drug trade. Some are regular working people
Speaker 2: just trying to get by, and the officers robbed them anyway.
Speaker 2: One man was even homeless at the time. Most of
Speaker 2: them never bothered to complain because they thought no one
Speaker 2: would believe them. There's one moment of the trial that
Speaker 2: really stands out. It's when former drug dealer Ronald Hamilton
Speaker 2: is called to testify. He was living in a mansion
Speaker 2: in the Baltimore suburbs when the Task Force officers robbed
Speaker 2: him of twenty thousand dollars. Defense lawyers needle him about
Speaker 2: his half million dollar house. How can someone who's just
Speaker 2: gotten out of prison for drugs afford this? Ronald Hamilton
Speaker 2: just loses it.
Speaker 6: This destroyed my whole family. I am in a divoice
Speaker 6: process right now because of this. Destroyed my whole family. Man,
Speaker 6: you sit here asking me questions about a house. Everybody's
Speaker 6: life is destroyed. Man, My house don't have nothing to
Speaker 6: do with this.
Speaker 2: It's a breathless trial. The jury never hears from former
Speaker 2: sergeant Wayne Jenkins, but he's the star of the whole thing.
Speaker 2: After three weeks of testimony, the prosecution rests its case.
Speaker 2: The jury deliberates for twelve hours before returning with the verdict.
Speaker 2: Former detectives Daniel Hersel and Marcus Taylor, the two officers
Speaker 2: from the squad who have always maintained their innocence are
Speaker 2: found guilty of racketeering and robbery. They're later sentenced to
Speaker 2: eighteen year Over the next several months, the four officers
Speaker 2: who testified against their former colleagues are sentenced Jamel Rayham
Speaker 2: twelve years, Momadu Gondo ten years, Maurice Ward and Evodio
Speaker 2: Hendrix seven years. But it's the sentencing of Wayne Jenkins
Speaker 2: that I'm really waiting for. When the day finally arrives,
Speaker 2: the courtroom is even more packed than usual. The Jenkins
Speaker 2: family is there. Also, there are the children of Elbert Davis,
Speaker 2: the eighty six year old man who died in the
Speaker 2: car wreck caused by Jenkins and other officers in twenty ten.
Speaker 2: This is Jenkins's last opportunity to appeal to the judge
Speaker 2: before he's sentenced. I have no idea what to expect.
Speaker 2: Will he be remorseful or stonefaced? When he enters the courtroom,
Speaker 2: the swaggering super cup gone, His eyes are red, he's sniffling.
Speaker 2: Then he rises to address the court.
Speaker 12: This is from the transcript to the davis Is who
Speaker 12: lost their loved one. From the bottom of my heart,
Speaker 12: I wish I could take that day back and not
Speaker 12: stop that vehicle.
Speaker 2: He apologizes to everyone, his wife, his parents. He claims
Speaker 2: to have found religion. He's read the Bible thirty one
Speaker 2: times since getting locked up. He's almost sobbing. Jenkins then
Speaker 2: addresses Umar Burley, the man behind the wheel of the
Speaker 2: other car, who is not in the courtroom that day.
Speaker 12: Mister Umer Burley, God forgive me. I wish I could
Speaker 12: have came clean when I found out that drugs are planet.
Speaker 12: I should have came clean, and I didn't. I'm so sorry,
Speaker 12: your honor.
Speaker 2: He collapses into his seat. Moments later, the judge sentences
Speaker 2: him twenty five years in a federal prison. He scheduled
Speaker 2: for release in twenty thirty eight. I remember how the
Speaker 2: end of the trial felt incredibly unsatisfying. Sure, seven officers
Speaker 2: were heading to prison, but it felt like we'd gotten
Speaker 2: just the tiniest glimpse into what was really going on
Speaker 2: inside the Baltimore Police Department. More than a dozen names
Speaker 2: of other Baltimore officers and supervisors came up during the trial,
Speaker 2: some of them alleged to be accomplices in robberies. At
Speaker 2: one point, a very senior officer was named in testimony.
Speaker 2: Later the same day that officer announced his retirement, the
Speaker 2: department promised to investigate all of this. FBI agent Jensen
Speaker 2: had a similar feeling to mine that this case was
Speaker 2: far from over.
Speaker 9: We didn't have time to catch our breath. We had
Speaker 9: all this information. What do we do with it? We
Speaker 9: can't just put it in an FBI file and stick
Speaker 9: it in a drawer somewhere. I mean, we all agreed,
Speaker 9: and I can remember very specifically that we all sat
Speaker 9: around and said, we got to try. We have to
Speaker 9: try to figure out if we can coroborate everything that
Speaker 9: we're told about the conduct of either other officers or
Speaker 9: other people that were involved in this case.
Speaker 2: Because of the ongoing investigation, a total of twenty Baltimore
Speaker 2: Police officers have now been charged. There were thousands of
Speaker 2: criminal cases involving the Gun Trace Task Force that needed
Speaker 2: to be re examined. Investigators wanted to know if the
Speaker 2: cases were tainted by any of the corruption revealed at
Speaker 2: the trial. Ultimately, eight hundred cases were thrown out. A
Speaker 2: dozen sued the Baltimore Police Department. So far, the city
Speaker 2: has paid out fourteen million dollars. One of those who
Speaker 2: sued was Kenneth Bumgardner. He had his jaw fractured after
Speaker 2: an encounter with the Gun Trace Task Force, and was
Speaker 2: eventually awarded one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: Finally, like trying to get my life back on track.
Speaker 4: It's still hard though, because I get a lot of
Speaker 4: pain in my mouth, and like, you know, I'm losing
Speaker 4: a lot of teeth. You know, they used to be
Speaker 4: nice and pretty. Most of the back teeth are gone
Speaker 4: because of the injury, like an like taking the act
Speaker 4: are like gone, you know. So I'm just dealing with
Speaker 4: that and but for the main problem staying focused and
Speaker 4: happy and moving forward. You know.
Speaker 2: Some had their convictions overturned, like Umar Burley. Burley had
Speaker 2: thirty two grams of heroin planted on him after a
Speaker 2: fatal car crash, and he served seven years in prison
Speaker 2: because of it. In court, the judge who ordered Burley's
Speaker 2: release was the same judge who accepted his false plea
Speaker 2: years earlier. Umar Burley told me what it felt like
Speaker 2: that day to be believed by the court.
Speaker 5: Judge Bennett said that I am the one that sentence you,
Speaker 5: so I feel partly responsible for these actions. So he
Speaker 5: come down off the bench and said he wanted to
Speaker 5: shake my hand and apologize. And you know, it made
Speaker 5: me feel good to get the situation out. I felt like,
Speaker 5: finally something is being done.
Speaker 2: Umar Burley sued the police department. In late twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: the city of Baltimore settled with him for eight million dollars.
Speaker 2: This could have been the start of a new life
Speaker 2: for Burley, but it didn't turn out that way.
Speaker 7: A man whom Baltimore City just paid millions to is
Speaker 7: part of the settlement in the Gun Trace Task Force scandal,
Speaker 7: has been arrested for attempted murder. Umar Burley is accused
Speaker 7: of shooting a woman at a Motel six in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Speaker 7: He was arrested this morning at his charge with attempted murder.
Speaker 2: Burley is now sitting in jail in Virginia waiting trial
Speaker 2: on charges of attempted murder for shooting his girlfriend for
Speaker 2: shooting at police during a high speed chase. This baffling
Speaker 2: crime allegedly all happened within days of the first million
Speaker 2: dollars landing in his bank account. Over the last four years,
Speaker 2: the biggest question in my mind has always been this,
Speaker 2: how do you go from a rookie cop who swore
Speaker 2: an oath to serve and protect the citizens of Baltimore
Speaker 2: to being part of a corrupt criminal gang. I've written
Speaker 2: to all seven officers who were originally charged, asking them
Speaker 2: to talk to me. Tell me how it happened. When
Speaker 2: was the first time they stole? Did someone show them
Speaker 2: this is the way we do things in playing close police?
Speaker 2: Did the top brass knowingly turn a blind eye? Only
Speaker 2: one officer wanted to engage, Marcus Taylor. He was one
Speaker 2: of the two officers who went to trial, but he
Speaker 2: denied any wrong doing. In one of his emails to me,
Speaker 2: he wrote, I maintain my innocence and I always document everything.
Speaker 2: My life is about protecting and serving the citizens of
Speaker 2: Baltimore and reducing the violence in the city. I love Baltimore.
Speaker 2: I also wrote to former Sergeant Wayne Jenkins many times,
Speaker 2: but if I'm being honest, I never expected him to
Speaker 2: talk to me. Since the case broke four years ago,
Speaker 2: he hasn't given a single interview. But then something sort
Speaker 2: of crazy happened just as I was finishing putting the
Speaker 2: story together.
Speaker 11: You have a prepaid call. You will not be charged
Speaker 11: for this call.
Speaker 6: What's college from Wayne Dredgers, an inmate, aunt, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Then that's next time you've been listening to back Cops
Speaker 2: from the BBC World Service with me Jessica Lustop. The
Speaker 2: program was mixed by Neil Churchill additional mixing by James Beard.
Speaker 2: The producer is Ben Crichton and the editor is Richard Varden.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying bad Cops, make sure to check out
Speaker 1: season one of the Burden. You'll meet the greatest detective
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn history. He takes on the worst criminals until
Speaker 1: one day, the criminals take him on