Tip of black man with gun not enough for Terry stop here State v. Hill A-2119-21
Defendant appealed the denial of his motion to suppress a handgun seized during a Terrystop based on an alleged tip from a confidential informant. At the suppression hearing, the arresting officer testified that he and his partner were dispatched to respond to a report of a Black man with a gun. The officers got the report from detectives working for the prosecutor's office, who allegedly received a tip from a confidential informant. Neither officer knew anything about the CI. The officers spotted defendant, who matched the description in the report. The officers did not observe defendant do anything illegal and did not see any evidence that he was armed. However, when defendant turned away from the officers, they grabbed his hands and performed a pat-down, recovering a handgun. The trial court denied defendant's suppression motion, distinguishing the case from Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, by noting that defendant's act of reaching towards his waistband while turning away from the officers, along with the corroborated description of defendant, justified the pat-down. On appeal, the court reversed, agreeing that the officers lacked reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk defendant. The court ruled that defendant's "unusual movement" was insufficient to provide reasonable suspicion for the stop, which was based on an anonymous tip about a Black man with a gun. The court noted that the arresting officers knew nothing about the CI who allegedly provided the tip. Source NJLJ July 19, 2023
