People v Williams
2014 NY Slip Op 06338 [120 AD3d 1441]
September 24, 2014
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, October 29, 2014


[*1]
 The People of the State of New York,Appellant,
v
Charles Williams, Respondent.

Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, N.Y. (John M. Castellano,Edward D. Saslaw, and Robert Masters of counsel), for appellant.

Lynn W.L. Fahey, New York, N.Y. (Allegra Glashausser of counsel), forrespondent.

Appeal by the People from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, QueensCounty (Paynter, J.), dated September 7, 2012, as, after a hearing, granted that branch ofthe defendant's omnibus motion which was to suppress physical evidence.

Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, and thatbranch of the defendant's omnibus motion which was to suppress physical evidence isdenied.

The evidence admitted at the suppression hearing established that police officers hada founded suspicion that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity, warranting acommon-law right of inquiry, which, because of the defendant's flight, escalated intoreasonable suspicion to pursue (see People v Sierra, 83 NY2d 928, 929 [1994];People v Riley, 290 AD2d 568, 569 [2002]). Since the pursuit of the defendantwas justified, the gun he discarded during the pursuit was not subject to suppression asthe product of unlawful police conduct (see People v Britt, 67 AD3d 1023, 1024 [2009]; Peoplev Riley, 290 AD2d at 569). Dickerson, J.P., Chambers, Austin and Sgroi, JJ.,concur.


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