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DEFENDANT’S FLIGHT WHEN APPROACHED BY POLICE IN PLAINCLOTHES AND DRIVING AN UNMARKED CAR DID NOT JUSTIFY PURSUIT, MOTION TO SUPPRESS WEAPON DISCARDED BY THE DEFENDANT SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Renwick, over two separate full-fledged dissenting opinions, determined that the police did not have justification for pursuing defendant when he ran as the police (in plainclothes driving an unmarked car) approached. The police had a report of a shooting by a black man wearing a black jacket. Defendant was wearing a gray jacket and was walking out of an apartment complex with a black man wearing a black jacket. Defendant’s motion to suppress the weapon he discarded during the chase should have been granted:

“Flight alone, even if accompanied by equivocal circumstances that would justify a police request for information, does not establish reasonable suspicion of criminality and is insufficient to justify pursuit, although it may give rise to reasonable suspicion if combined with other specific circumstances indicating the suspect’s possible engagement in criminal activity” … . “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” … . …

… [T]he radio report simply indicated a sole perpetrator with a vague description — black man in a black jacket. There was nothing at all about defendant that matched any aspect of the suspect in the radio report, except that he was black. Nor was defendant wearing a black jacket. He was wearing a gray jacket and was with a second individual, several minutes after the radio report of shots fired. The men did not appear to be fleeing the scene, but rather, were exiting an apartment complex. Thus, unlike the cases relied on by the People, defendant did not match any description, general or otherwise … . Further, there was insufficient evidence to support the conclusion that defendant knew Pengel and his colleagues were police officers… .

That defendant was with someone who matched an extremely vague, generic description of the suspect, which contained no information about the suspect’s height or weight, was not sufficiently indicative of criminal activity on defendant’s part … . People v Bilal, 2019 NY Slip Op 01673, First Dept 3-7-19

 

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