M.D.Ala.: No RS for stop and frisk at 1:30 am in residential area

Police received a 911 call 1:21 am about a potential prowler, but the caller didn’t look because she was afraid to. She also didn’t ask the police to come by. The officer was dispatched, and he did a drive by to see if he could tell anything was going on, and he didn’t see anything. About .3 of a mile away the officer encountered the defendant. Recognizing that this was a potentially high crime area, he stopped defendant wearing a hoodie November 7th in Montgomery, Alabama. He asked defendant were he’d been, and he said he was walking from a store, but the store in that direction closed at midnight. He asked defendant if he had a gun on him, which defendant denied. The officer, one for nine months, decided he didn’t like the way defendant answered. There was nothing about his clothing or actions that even suggested he was armed. “As Officer Howell rightly said on the stand, absent the call, in his mind, his search would have been improper as Hardy was not committing a crime when he saw him and any person may walk the streets at any time in whatever attire they choose. The Court concludes from the facts and circumstances, Howell acted on a hunch that Hardy had a concealed weapon.” Motion to suppress granted. United States v. Hardy, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133594 (M.D. Ala. June 14, 2018).*