Confidential Informant Provided Reasonable Suspicion for a Vehicle Stop; Information Vehicle Occupants Were Armed Justified Stop with Guns Drawn

The Third Department determined that information from a confidential informant provided reasonable suspicion sufficient to justify an investigatory vehicle stop and noted that a vehicle stop with guns drawn did not ripen into an arrest where the police had reliable information the occupants of the vehicle were armed:

We reject defendant’s contention that removing him from the vehicle at gunpoint constituted an arrest without probable cause. An investigatory stop will not ripen into an arrest based upon the use of weapons by the police when they have reason to believe that the suspects are armed and dangerous, and here the police had been advised that defendant and the other individual were armed … .  People v Coffey, 104496, 3rd Dept, 6-6-13

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