United States v. Adair

Bloomington Illinois Officer Squires received a crime-in-progress notification. The 911 operator informed him that a caller from the Tracy Drive Apartments reported a group of persons outside her apartment engaged in suspicious activity and that a short black male wearing a hoodie had a gun in his front pocket. Arriving two minutes later, Squires saw the group, approached, and observed that Adair roughly fit the 911 caller’s description (he did not have a hoodie) and had a large bulge in his front pants’ pocket. Adair sought to evade Squires by moving through the larger group. Squires then stopped and patted down Adair, finding a gun in his front pocket. The district court rejected a Fourth Amendment challenge. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Under the totality of circumstances facing Squires at the Apartments, he had reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk Adair under the Terry v. Ohio standard. Squires reasonably believed that he was responding to an emergency 911 call in a high-crime area. Squires testified he had previously encountered Adair many times and immediately recognized him as not living at the Apartments, and the only person wearing clothing resembling the 911 caller’s description. Squires knew Adair had a prior felony conviction and Adair acted evasively. View "United States v. Adair" on Justia Law