United States v. Harvey, No. 19-3735 (8th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress after he conditionally pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm offense. Under the totality of the circumstances, the court concluded that an officer with forty years experience must be allowed to draw on this experience and training to make inferences from and deductions about whether there was reasonable suspicion that one or both of these suspects may be armed and dangerous. In this case, police suspected that defendant's companion was a suspect in the theft of two firearms stolen three days earlier; a Terry stop of both men was reasonable; and the officer had a reasonable suspicion to conduct a pat down search of defendant based on information related to the companion. Furthermore, the officer asked the men if they were armed and defendant stated that the he was. Therefore, the officer retrieved the firearm from defendant's pocket.
Court Description: [Loken, Author, with Grasz and Kobes, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. Under the totality of the circumstances, including information that defendant's companion was a suspect in the theft of two firearms three days earlier, a Terry stop of the two men was reasonable; further, the officer had reasonable suspicion to conduct a pat-down search of defendant based on information that his companion was a suspect in a theft of the firearms; further, the officer first asked the men if they were armed, and defendant stated he was and the officer could retrieve the firearm from defendant's pocket.
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