United States v. Smith, No. 22-1055 (6th Cir. 2023)
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D.B. left a Detroit and believed he was being followed by a silver sedan. At 1:41:01 a.m., a traffic camera captured D.B. driving through an intersection, followed by the silver sedan less than a minute later. Minutes later, about 2-½ miles away, an individual in a silver sedan shot D.B. Surveillance video captured muzzle flashes coming from a silver sedan described as “look[ing] like a Chevy Malibu.” The only silver sedan that could be placed in D.B.’s proximity around the time of the shooting was Smith’s Chevy Malibu. D.B. later picked Smith out of a photographic lineup as someone he had a “beef [with] in the past.”
Smith’s car was tagged in Michigan’s Law Enforcement Information Network, with a warning that the car’s occupants were armed. Days later, an officer stopped Smith’s car and frisked Smith for weapons. Smith stated there was a gun in a case in the car. The trooper performed a “protective sweep” of the areas within a driver’s reach and found a handgun with a chambered bullet and a baggie containing fentanyl and heroin. Smith unsuccessfully moved to have the evidence suppressed as fruit of an unreasonable search. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of the motion. The police had reasonable suspicion to stop Smith and perform a limited search.
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