{"id":63463,"date":"2026-03-05T10:23:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63463"},"modified":"2026-03-06T08:41:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:41:40","slug":"ca5-drivers-lie-about-having-a-gun-on-him-justified-a-frisk-of-the-passenger-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63463","title":{"rendered":"CA5: Driver\u2019s lie about having a gun on him justified a frisk of the passenger, too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Driver\u2019s lie about having a gun on him justified a frisk of the passenger, too; Ybarra distinguished. United States v. Ducksworth<\/a>, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 6255 (5th Cir. Mar. 3, 2026):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We agree with the First Circuit that “it would be beyond folly for our court to ask police officers to ignore the clear relevance of discovering a hidden firearm on the driver”\u2014especially when the driver lied about having a weapon. See id. Unlike the “unwitting tavern patron in Ybarra,” Ducksworth shared a connection with the driver, who could not present identification or proof of insurance, possessed a hidden firearm, and lied about it\u2014at night, in a public, high-crime area. See id.; Houghton, 526 U.S. at 304. And while the sole, outnumbered officer approached Ducksworth with his weapon drawn, Ducksworth opened his door as if to exit the vehicle before he was ordered to do so, but then told the officer he could not exit the vehicle because he was paralyzed. We have previously found that similar types of actions can give rise to reasonable suspicion. See, e.g., United States v. Rodriguez, 33 F.4th 807, 813 (5th Cir. 2022) (treating the fact that a “driver initially opened his door as the officers approached” as a factor in deciding whether reasonable suspicion existed); United States v. Berry, 664 F. App’x 413, 419 (5th Cir. 2016) (per curiam), as revised (Dec. 14, 2016) (noting that “inconsistent and untruthful statements can be a factor in developing reasonable suspicion during a traffic stop”); United States v. Coleman, 969 F.2d 126, 131 (5th Cir. 1992) (per curiam) (noting that a driver “did not stay in his car, but exited quickly” in deciding whether a search was justified); United States v. Garza, 727 F.3d 436, 442 (5th Cir. 2013) (“Unprovoked flight, as well as nervous, erratic behavior, are factors which support a finding of reasonable suspicion.”); United States v. Rose, 48 F.4th 297, 304 (5th Cir. 2022) (noting that “furtive movements” can “heighten” suspicion”); United States v. McKinney, 980 F.3d 485, 495 (5th Cir. 2020) (“Nervous behavior is indeed supportive of reasonable suspicion.”). Taken together, these circumstances created a “reasonable, individualized suspicion” that Ducksworth could also be armed and dangerous. See Buie, 494 U.S. at 334 n.2. “[A] reasonably prudent man in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger.” See Baker, 47 F.3d at 693.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The district court did not err in denying the motion to suppress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driver\u2019s lie about having a gun on him justified a frisk of the passenger, too; Ybarra distinguished. United States v. Ducksworth, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 6255 (5th Cir. Mar. 3, 2026):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasonable-suspicion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63463"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63474,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63463\/revisions\/63474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}