Defendant’s Flight Did Not Justify Police Pursuit.
Flight was not sufficient to justify police pursuit. A police officer had been shot in the afternoon. About eight hours after the shooting, uniformed officers approached the defendant as he was walking within a block or two of where the shooting occurred. The defendant said “What, we can’t go to the store?” turned his back, made a gesture toward his waistband, and ran. The police pursued him and saw him discard a handgun from his pocket as he was being tackled by an officer. The defendant subsequently pled guilty to criminal possession of a weapon. The Fourth Department reversed the conviction and vacated the sentence. “Flight alone … is insufficient to justify pursuit because an individual has a right to be let alone and refuse to respond to police inquiry …”. Because there were no “specific circumstances indicating that the suspect [was] engaged in criminal activity,” there was no “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity, “the necessary predicate for police pursuit…”. People v Cady, 1427, KA 12-00337 Fourth Dept. 2-1-13
DeBour, street stops