Search and Seizure Reasonable Suspicion Abandoned Contraband

Commonwealth v. Brockman, PICS Case No. 17-1131 (Pa. Super. July 5, 2017) Stevens, J.; Ott, J., concurring in result (17 pages).

The trial court properly held that defendant was not entitled to the suppression of a certain evidence, i.e., a handgun and packets of crack cocaine he discarded during his flight from police where the facts supported the court's conclusion that police had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant. The court affirmed an order denying defendant's motion to suppress.

Philadelphia Police Detective Michael Rocks was assigned to investigate a shooting that occurred Dec. 12, 2014, around the 2500 block of North 30th Street. After Rocks received information about the shooter from another officer and reviewed numerous photographs, he developed defendant as a suspect. Rocks also received a call from a female identifying herself as the victim's girlfriend. The woman provided Rocks with a clothing description of the shooter. Rocks asked that if other officers saw defendant in the described location, to stop him and bring him to Central Detectives for investigation. Police officer Alexander McChord already knew defendant from the neighborhood and because his partner had arrested defendant a year earlier. McChord went to the location, identified defendant and asked him to stop. At that point, defendant reached for his front side and ran. In the process, he removed a black handgun and "clear bag" from his waistband and dropped them in front of a parked car. The Commonwealth later arrested defendant and charged him with firearms offenses and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, among other things. Defendant moved to suppress the firearm and clear bag, which contained 35 plastic packets of crack cocaine. The trial court denied defendant's suppression motion. On appeal, defendant maintained that the trial court erred when it denied his motion because he was forced to abandon the contraband based upon an illegal seizure. He maintained that police had neither reasonable suspicion nor probable cause to stop him. The appellate court found that the record belied defendant's assertions. Rocks developed defendant as a suspect in the shooting incident after receiving information from another officer obtained from the victim, who described the shooter as a short, black male. Based upon the description of the shooter, the nickname and information about the area where the shooting occurred, Rocks suspected defendant. Police did not, as defendant claimed, rely on an uncorroborated, anonymous tip. Rather, the victim's girlfriend advised detectives that the man who shot her boyfriend was standing in the 2600 block of North 30th Street. She provided police with a clothing description of the perpetrator. Detectives supplied this information to McChord. The facts of record supported the trial court's determination that police initially had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant, the court observed. Moreover, when McChord approached defendant on Dec. 23, 2014, and told him to stop, he did not draw his weapon or activate his patrol car's lights or sirens. McChord did not intend to arrest defendant. Thus, the court rejected defendant's argument that he was forced to abandon the contraband due to an illegal seizure.