People v. Williams

120 A.D.3d 1441, 992 N.Y.S.2d 438, 2014 NY Slip Op 06338, 2014 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6268

Opinion

Appeal by the People from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Paynter, J.), dated September 7, 2012, as, after a hearing, granted that branch of the defendant’s omnibus motion which was to suppress physical evidence.

Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, and that branch of the defendant’s omnibus motion which was to suppress physical evidence is denied.

The evidence admitted at the suppression hearing established that police officers had a founded suspicion that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity, warranting a common-law right of inquiry, which, because of the defendant’s flight, escalated into reasonable suspicion to pursue (see People v Sierra, 83 NY2d 928, 929 [1994]; People v Riley, 290 AD2d 568, 569 [2002]). Since the pursuit of the defendant was justified, the gun he discarded during the pursuit was not subject to suppression as the product of unlawful police conduct (see People v Britt, 67 AD3d 1023, 1024 [2009]; People v Riley, 290 AD2d at 569).

Dickerson, J.E, Chambers, Austin and Sgroi, JJ., concur.