THE INVOLVEMENT OF A VAN IN A ROAD RAGE SHOOTING THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE TRAFFIC STOP AND AN INCIDENT WHERE A TRAFFIC AGENT WAS NEARLY STRUCK BY THE VAN 24 HOURS BEFORE THE STOP PROVIDED “REASONABLE SUSPICION” THAT THE DRIVER OF THE VAN AT THE TIME OF THE STOP WAS THE DRIVER DURING THE ROAD-RAGE AND TRAFFIC-AGENT INCIDENTS (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Halligan, determined “reasonable suspicion” supported a traffic stop of a van which had been involved in a road rage shooting three weeks before and had sped away from a traffic agent, nearly striking the agent, 24 hours before the stop. The driver who was involved in the road-rage and ticket-agent incidents had not been identified at the time of the stop:

Although police must have individualized suspicion that the driver or occupant of a vehicle has committed a crime to conduct a traffic stop, information about a car’s involvement in prior criminal activity may support a finding of reasonable suspicion … . Such prior activity contributes to a determination of reasonable suspicion when it occurs with sufficient temporal and geographic proximity to the stop to infer that the person who was driving the car during the prior crime is also driving at the time of the stop … . …

The officers who stopped the defendant on May 18th had information from a license plate search indicating that a white Dodge Caravan with a license plate number matching the defendant’s vehicle was involved in a road rage shooting in Washington Heights on April 28th. Although that information was nearly three weeks old, the officers also knew from their conversation with the traffic agent that less than 24 hours before the stop and in the same neighborhood, someone driving the same car had evaded a parking ticket and nearly hit the traffic agent as they drove away. Because the driver during the traffic infraction sped away, almost hitting the traffic agent, the officers could have reasonably inferred that the driver during the parking violation was also the driver during the shooting and fled to avoid repercussions from the shooting. Thus, in addition to inferring that there was a connection between the vehicle and the two incidents, they also reasonably inferred that the same person was driving that vehicle during both incidents. Moreover, the officers knew from the vehicle’s registration that it was privately owned, which significantly narrowed the universe of potential drivers … . People v Zubidi, 2026 NY Slip Op 00964, CtApp 2-19-26

Practice Point: Here circumstantial evidence that the same driver of an identified van was involved in a road-rage shooting and in nearly striking a traffic agent was deemed to provide “reasonable suspicion” supporting a traffic stop of the van three weeks after the road-rage incident and 24 hours after the traffic-agent incident.