| People v Rosa |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 07955 [67 AD3d 440] |
| November 5, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v JoseRosa, Appellant. |
—[*1] Lucente of counsel), for appellant. Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Sheila L. Bautista of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Charles H. Solomon, J., at suppressionhearing; Marcy L. Kahn, J., at plea and sentence), rendered January 2, 2008, as amended January15, 2008, convicting defendant of attempted murder in the second degree, and sentencing him toa term of 15 years, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. An officer heard shots, and, invery close temporal and spatial proximity to the gunfire, saw several people pointing atdefendant, who walked quickly away, frequently looking back over his shoulder. The officer alsosaw a man lying on the ground with other people gathering around him. These circumstancesclearly provided, at least, reasonable suspicion justifying a forcible detention. Undercircumstances such as these, pointing is readily interpreted as a nonverbal accusation that hasoften been recognized as a significant factor justifying police action (see e.g. Peoplev Burgos, 300 AD2d 256 [2002], lv denied 99 NY2d 626 [2003]; People vSonds, 287 AD2d 319, 320 [2001], lv denied 97 NY2d 709 [2002]; People vNash, 227 AD2d 125 [1996], lv denied 88 NY2d 1070 [1996]).Concur—Sweeny, J.P., Buckley, Catterson, Acosta and Freedman, JJ.