A couple of days after Rodney Ellis Sutphin’s death, police raided his Grant Avenue home around 4 a.m. and pointed guns equipped with laser sights at the occupants of the house.
“The cops yelled, ‘Come downstairs right now; open the f***ing door,’” Sutphin’s aunt Tina Ellis said. “As soon as I opened the door, they had their shields up with laser beams all over the place.”
Rodney Sutphin
Police were looking for Raesean Sutphin — Rodney’s brother — but his family said the officers didn’t make it clear why they wanted to arrest him.
One day prior to the raid, a man and a woman were wounded by gunfire near the intersection of Girard and St. Joe’s avenues. Raesean Sutphin was identified as one of four suspects in that shooting and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force then set out to find him.
When officers raided the Ellis / Sutphin home, they should have provided the arrest warrant when asked by the family whether they had a search warrant. The officers also should have explained that an arrest warrant gives police the right to search any location they believe the suspect to be living or hiding. But, according to Raesean’s family, police didn’t make any of that clear.
“They were very disrespectful,” Tina said. “We didn’t find out why they were looking for Raesean until it hit the newspaper.”
According to the family, when they asked police whether they had a search warrant, the officers replied, “No.” Technically, police didn’t need a search warrant as long as they had reason to believe Raesean was in the house. But the lack of communication by police angered Sutphin’s family, which led to vulgar language and shouting matches, the family said.
“They tore up my house like it was nothing,” Sutphin’s grandmother Deborah Ellis said. “How can a human being be hiding underneath a cushion?”
Raesean Sutphin
At the time of the raid, the Ellis / Sutphin family had one thing on their mind: the burial of Rodney Sutphin. So, when police raided the home looking for Raesean, they didn’t understand why. Tina said she asked an officer to explain what was going on, and he replied, “Don’t act like you’re stupid, we need to get Raesean off of the streets. The shooting needs to stop.”
Police then searched the family’s entire house, including areas where no human could possibly fit. The officers also threatened to shoot two caged dogs because of their loud consistent barking, the family said. Police eventually left after not finding Raesean that morning, but they returned a couple of days later and went through the entire routine again without explaining the arrest warrant, the family said.
“They tossed my shoes,” Deborah said. “Who’s gonna hide under a pair of shoes? They opened the freezer. How am I gonna fit a person in my freezer? It didn’t make any sense.”
To law enforcement, though, it did make sense. Police say they often search for a suspect in the most obscure places because they sometimes hide. According to the county prosecutor’s office, that’s exactly what Raesean did when police found him a few days later in a home on Walnut Avenue.
“Sutphin was in a closet under a pile of clothes,” spokesperson Casey DeBlasio said.
Now that Raesean is behind bars, his family said, police have stopped answering their calls in regards to the murder of Rodney Sutphin. His family feels that police are not investigating the case as aggressively as other cases because he has the last name Sutphin. Rodney was found shot dead behind the wheel of an idling minivan on Oct 19. Police found the van around 1:20 a.m. in the area of Mulberry Street and Nottingham Way.
His family said police told them the van was found parked in the middle of Mulberry Street, and that “the bullets were not meant for him.” The owner of the van was warned not to drive through a particular area, according to street sources, and he then asked Rodney Sutphin to drive the vehicle. His family believes someone was in the van with Rodney, but police have not confirmed that suspicion. Rodney’s death certificate lists his “location of injury” as the 100 block of Breunig Avenue. The family has questions about how the van moved from Breunig to Mulberry without crashing or jumping a curb.
“Police told us, 'We know for a fact the shooting was not meant for Rodney; it was meant for the person who owned the van,’” Tina said. “If he was an innocent person, why not work the case as if he was a person walking down the street who got shot? They are biased to the case and are not investigating Rodney’s death because of his last name. The van owner can be seen as an accomplice. Police said they took him in and questioned him, but they let him go.”
Lawrence Sutphin
His family feels that police are not treating the case like other murder cases because of Lawrence Sutphin’s history with law enforcement. In April, Lawrence Sutphin was arrested in connection with the Galilee Baptist Church shooting, though prosecutor’s have since said that he never fired a shot. Lawrence Sutphin was then arrested at least four additional times over a six-month period, which includes an arrest for threatening to shoot up The Trentonian newsroom after his picture was placed on the cover in connection with the church shooting.
Lawrence Sutphin, though, has little contact with the Ellis side of the family, Deborah said. Meanwhile, all of Deborah’s grandchildren, which includes Rodney and Raesean, lived and grew up in the Ellis’ Grant Avenue home. Lawrence Sutphin is the uncle of Rodney and Raesean. Lawrence and Rodney were arrested together in September after police allegedly witnessed them sell drugs to another man.
“Rodney wasn’t a bad kid; he wasn’t a gangbanger,” Deborah said. “He (may have been in trouble), but that doesn’t mean you can throw his case in a cold case pile.”
Mercer County prosecutors said they are continually investigating all of Trenton’s unsolved murders, and that there have been no new developments in Rodney Sutphin’s case.