People v Henderson
2011 NY Slip Op 05566 [85 AD3d 663]
June 28, 2011
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, August 10, 2011


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
KianiHenderson, Appellant.

[*1]Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Michael McLaughlin of counsel), forappellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (David C. Bornstein of counsel), forrespondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Renee A. White, J., at hearing; Lewis BartStone, J., at plea and sentencing), rendered June 25, 2009, convicting defendant of criminalpossession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, toa term of five years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. The police officers had areasonable, objective basis for concluding that the object they saw in defendant's waistband was apistol. The officers saw a bulge, which they described in detail. Although the officers did not seethe outline of an entire weapon, the shape of the bulge resembled the outline of the grip of apistol. In addition, defendant made repeated motions that the officers recognized, from theirexperience, as typical of attempts to adjust a firearm kept in a waistband. Accordingly, the policehad reasonable suspicion justifying a stop and frisk (see e.g. Matter of George G., 73 AD3d624 [2010]; People v Quan, 182 AD2d 506 [1992], lv denied 80 NY2d 836[1992]).

Defendant did not preserve his contention that the police officers, at most, should haveinitially conducted a patdown, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As analternative holding, we also reject it on the merits (see People v Smith, 93 AD2d 432,434 [1983], lv denied 60 NY2d 594 [1983]). Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Sweeny,Freedman, Manzanet-Daniels and Rom�n, JJ.


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