CA4: Stopping men right after shots were fired to look for guns was reasonable

Officers on patrol heard gunshots and arrived within 35 seconds and saw a group of men dispersing. The directed then to stop while shining flashlights on them, and the directed the men to pull up their shirts. Only defendant didn’t, and he was patted down finding a gun. The stop was reasonable under the circumstances, and the intrusion was minimal considering gunshot were fired seconds before. The district court’s suppression order is reversed. United States v. Curry, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 26800 (4th Cir. Sept. 5, 2019):

The officers here reacted to a perilous active-shooter situation, arriving on scene within 35 seconds of hearing multiple gunshots in a densely populated area. These exigent circumstances implicated vital governmental interests—citizen and police safety—beyond the ordinary need for law enforcement. The officers’ initial response was tailored to address these needs with minimal intrusion and thus reasonable. We therefore reverse the district court’s conclusion that the brief stop and flashlight search violated the Fourth Amendment. We leave for the district court to consider whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to search Curry after he disregarded their orders.

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