Commonwealth v. McFadden

628 A.2d 420, 427 Pa. Super. 45, 1993 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2141

• Court: Superior Court of Pennsylvania
• Decided: July 2, 1993
• Docket: Appeal 00357
• Status: Published

Opinions

CIRILLO, Judge:

This is an appeal by the Commonwealth from a pre-trial order by the Court of Common Pleas suppressing the introduction of a loaded, nine millimeter handgun as evidence against Andrew McFadden.¹ We reverse.

Two police officers in a marked patrol car in Philadelphia approached McFadden. McFadden fled, the officers pursued him and McFadden discarded a handgun in some bushes. One officer recovered the gun and the other officer arrested McFadden and charged him with carrying an unlicensed firearm on a public street.

This companion case to Commonwealth v. Carroll, — Pa.Super.-, 628 A.2d 398 (1993), decided this day, raises the same issue: whether Pennsylvania’s constitution demands greater protection for a fleeing suspect than that afforded by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution after the decision of California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991).

For the reasons detailed in Commonwealth v. Carroll, supra, we find that the protections under the state and federal constitutions are coextensive.

Order reversed.

1 . The Commonwealth has certified that the suppression substantially handicaps the prosecution. Commonwealth v. Dugger, 506 Pa. 537, 486 A.2d 382 (1985).