NOT FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
,

Plaintiff

- Appellant,

v.

CLINTON MACK REID,

Defendant

- Appellee. No. 16

- 50015

D.C. No. 3:15

- cr

- 01349

- BAS

- 1

MEMORANDUM *

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California Cynthia A. Bashant, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted June 9, 2017 Pasadena, California

Before: LIPEZ, ** BEA, and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges.

Clinton Reid wa s charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm in

violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) after a search of his vehicle by San Diego police

officers revealed a loaded handgun. The district court granted Reid’s motion to

suppress the handgun, and t he g overnment appeal ed that order

. We have jurisdiction

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36

- 3.

** The Honorable Kermit V. Lipez, United States Circuit Judge for the First Circuit, sitting by designation. 

# FILED

JUN 22 2017

MOLLY C. DWYER, CLER K U.S. COURT OF APPEAL S2

over that interlocutory appeal under 18 U.S.C. § 3731 . W e reverse and remand.

1. Officers were dispatched to a park after receiving two separate reports of

fighting and drug use . Members of a violent street gang had congregated in the park

to celebrat e a gang holiday

, and criminal activity had occurred in the park on

previous holidays. When uniformed officers entered the park, Reid

, wearing gang

colors

, “quickly” walked away and “seemed to be the most nervous of everybody

. ”

Reid went to a nearby parked car, sat in the back seat for five to seven seconds

, and

appeared to place something in the car before walking away. Officers stopped Reid

on his way bac k to the park

. An officer testified at the hearing on the motion to

suppress that based on his background, training, and experience, Reid was likely

“dumping” illegal contraband in the car

. O fficers ha d found illegal narcotics and

firearms on attendees o f this event in the past. Given the totality of the

circumstances

, there was “particularized and objective basis for suspecting” that

Reid had put contraband in his car

. United States v. Valdes

- Vega , 738 F.3d 1074,

1078 (9th Cir. 2013) (en banc) (citation omitted). The stop was therefore supported

by reas onable suspicion, which , as we have observed, “is not a particularly high

threshold to reach.” Id. ; see Terry v. Ohio , 392 U.S. 1, 30

- 31 (1968).

2

. Officers learned that Reid was a convicted felon during the Terry stop.

From outside the car where Reid had been sitting, officers observed a bulge in the

shape of a handgun in a pouch behind the driver’s seat. With limited exceptions, a3

convicted fel on may not possess a firearm. See 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1); Cal. Penal

Code § 29800. These “facts and circumstances within [ the officers’] knowledge ”

were “ sufficient to warrant a reasonable belief that ” Reid was a prohibited possessor

of a handgun , and the officers therefore had probable cause to search the car

. See

United States v. Noster , 590 F.3d 624, 633 (9th Cir. 2009) (citation omitted)

. 1

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

1 Reid did not cont end below that the search was deficient for failu re to obtain a search warrant.