{"id":3243,"date":"2009-12-19T09:50:25","date_gmt":"2009-07-12T10:26:56","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-12T10:26:56","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=3243","title":{"rendered":"CA6: Flight from illegal arrest leading to dropped gun legally led to seizure of gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant’s attempted arrest was without probable cause, but he dropped his gun while fleeing from the police, and the court must affirm the denial of the motion to suppress. United States v. Britton<\/a>, 335 Fed. Appx. 571 (6th Cir. 2009) (unpublished):<\/p>\n

. . . Shumpert Britton was legally disqualified from possessing the handgun he was carrying with him due to a prior felony conviction. That fact would not have come to light, however, if two Memphis, Tennessee police officers had not engaged in some illegality of their own: attempting to arrest Britton and two of his friends without any semblance of probable cause. But Britton’s pistol was not discovered during a search incident to his arrest. Instead, Britton dropped the gun while climbing a fence in an effort to flee the police. We cannot conclude that the discovery of any of the evidence used to convict Britton of being a felon in possession of a firearm was the product of an illegal arrest or search, despite the regrettable conduct of the police officers. Therefore, we must affirm the district court’s order denying Britton’s motion to suppress evidence, which he challenges on appeal.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Britton dropped the gun while he was being chased. He was not then under arrest. The Supreme Court held in California v. Hodari D.<\/a>, 499 U.S. 621, 111 S. Ct. 1547, 113 L. Ed. 2d 690 (1991), that an arrest does not occur until a police officer lays hands on a subject or the subject voluntarily submits to a show of authority. Id. at 626 (“The narrow question before us is whether, with respect to a show of authority as with respect to application of physical force, a seizure occurs even though the subject does not yield. We hold that it does not. … An arrest requires either physical force (as described above) or, where that is absent, submission to the assertion of authority.”). A person fleeing from a police officer’s show of force is not then under arrest. United States v. Williams, 949 F.2d 220, 222 (6th Cir. 1991). The gun was revealed in this case before the arrest occurred.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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