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POLICE PURSUIT OF DEFENDANT WAS NOT JUSTIFIED, WEAPON FOUND NEARBY PROPERLY SUPPRESSED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department determined the police did not have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity at the time defendant fled and the police pursued him. The police responded to reports of gunshots heard in the vicinity. A witness reported hearing a gunshot and seeing two men walking, one wearing dark clothes and the other wearing a white jacket. The defendant and another man matched that description. When the police approached the defendant he ran. The defendant was arrested after a pursuit and a gun was found nearby. Defendant was charged with criminal possession of a weapon. The motion court suppressed the gun:

“Police pursuit of an individual significantly impede[s] the person’s freedom of movement and thus must be justified by reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed” … . A suspect’s flight alone, even in conjunction with equivocal circumstances that might justify a common law inquiry, is insufficient to justify pursuit … . However, a defendant’s flight plus “other specific circumstances indicating that the suspect may be engaged in criminal activity, may give rise to reasonable suspicion, the necessary predicate for police pursuit” … .

Here, the police lacked reasonable suspicion that the defendant had committed, was committing, or was about to commit a crime, the necessary predicate for pursuit. Although clothing worn by the defendant and his companion matched the clothing described by the unidentified witness, the witness never saw either of the two men fire or possess a gun. There is no evidence in the record that the police saw any weapons or a bulge or outline of a weapon on the defendant which could indicate that he was involved in a crime  … . Furthermore, contrary to the People’s contention, the manner in which the defendant held his hands while he ran did not give the police reasonable suspicion to pursue. A stop must be “justified in its inception”… , and at the time that the police began to chase the defendant, he had both his hands in his jacket pocket, an “innocuous” placement that is “susceptible of an innocent as well as a culpable interpretation”  … . People v Ravenell, 2019 NY Slip Op 06630, Second Dept 9-18-19

 

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