Baltimore City’s Inspector General Hilton Green launched an investigation last week into the controversial death of Robert Lee Clay, the prominent Maryland contractor who was found shot to death in his Reservoir Hill office in 2005, according to a high-ranking source familiar with the probe.
Green interviewed several employees in the State’s Medical Examiner’s office about the autopsy of Clay last week, the source said. The autopsy report indicates Clay shot himself in the back of his head on the left side on May 16, 2005.
The Medical Examiner’s office analysis of the entry wound on the left backside of Clay’s head suggests Clay would have had to use his left hand to shoot himself. The 59-year-old activist was right-handed. Police also said the gun used in the incident found under his right arm was stolen from a Frederick house.
Green declined to comment on the investigation.
The probe will include a review of the evidence as well as how the original investigation was conducted by the police department, the source said.
“I still don’t think he killed himself and no one in my family believes he killed himself,” said Roger Clay, a nephew of the activist who was an outspoken critic of the city failing to hire minority contractors.
“I definitely support it, however, we can get to the bottom of it.”
Roger Clay said he was disturbed that police never found the bullet that killed his uncle.
The Examiner wrote a series of articles about the Clay case that raised several questions about the investigation. Following those reports, Clay’s family members, his friends and several politicians testified at an emotional City Council meeting. At that meeting, Councilman Jim Kraft, District 1, asked the FBI to review the case. After conducting their own analysis of the blood spatter from the crime scene, FBI forensic experts concluded that undisturbed blood spatter supported the conclusion that Clay committed suicide. The FBI did not conduct any further investigation.
Baltimore police officials did not return calls for comment.
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