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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS 

EASTERN DIVISION 

United States, 

 Plaintiff, 

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 ) No. 20 CR 298 

Khiry Jackson, 

 Defendant. 

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Memorandum Opinion and Order 

 Defendant Khiry Jackson is charged with being a felon in 

possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He 

was arrested after an approximately minute-long foot chase through 

the courtyard and parking lot of a Chicago Housing Authority (“CHA”) 

complex, then across the street and down a gangway between private 

residences before finding himself cornered and surrendering to 

Officer Nicholas Estrada. He moves to quash his arrest and suppress 

evidence of a weapon that was recovered from the back yard of a 

neighboring property moments after Mr. Jackson’s arrest. For the 

reasons explained below, I deny the motion. 

I. 

On the evening of October 14, 2019, Officer Estrada and his 

partner, Officer Raymond Arce, were patrolling an area designated a 

“high gang/narcotic area hot-spot.” Incident Arrest, Gov. Exh. 1, at 

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2. From their squad car, they observed several individuals who 

appeared to be loitering outside of a CHA complex and decided to 

investigate. As they approached, they saw Mr. Jackson jump over the 

wrought-iron fence that enclosed the property and take off running 

through the courtyard. 

The sequence of events that follows is captured by the bodyworn cameras (“BWCs”) of Officers Arce, Estrada, and an unidentified 

responding officer. Officer Estrada, dressed in plain clothes and a 

police vest, walks across the sidewalk and into the courtyard, which 

he enters through an open gate near where Mr. Jackson jumped the 

fence. Once inside the courtyard, Estrada begins running after 

Jackson. Seconds later, Arce turns and heads back to the squad car. 

The audio portion Arce’s camera footage cuts in at this point, and 

Arce can be heard to shout into his radio, “he’s holding his side, 

squad, he might have a gun!” Arce BWC, Gov. Exh. 3, at 1:52-2:02. 

Arce then returns to his vehicle and drives off. 

Meanwhile, Officer Estrada’s BWC comes online as his pursuit of 

Jackson is underway. Estrada can be heard to shout, “let me see your 

hands!” multiple times, and his weapon is drawn as he chases Mr. 

Jackson around the housing complex and back across the street. 

Estrada BWC, Gov. Exh. 2, at 0:00-0:30. As Estrada closes in, Jackson 

pushes open a gate at the entrance of a three-flat apartment building 

across the street from the CHA complex and runs down the gangway of 

this building toward the alley. Id. at 0:30. At this point, Estrada 

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is hot on Jackson’s heels and enters the gate just steps behind him, 

then yells into his radio, “he’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!” Id. at 

0:33. 

Although not visible on Estrada’s BWC footage, Estrada 

testified that as Jackson ran down the gangway, he “launched” the 

weapon “into the next yard over.” Tr. of 03/03/23 Hr’g., at 32:20. 

Jackson is then observed rounding the back of the apartment building, 

where he finds himself cornered. As Estrada approaches, Jackson 

raises his hands in surrender, then lies on the ground and allows 

Estrada to handcuff him. 

After Mr. Jackson is taken into custody and handed off to other 

officers, Estrada and Arce—who by then had arrived on the arrest 

scene—searched the back yard of the property two doors down from 

where Estrada had seen Jackson throw a gun. In the meantime, the 

owner of that property had reported to police that someone threw a 

gun into his backyard. See Incident Report, Gov. Exh. 1, at 2; BWC 

footage, Gov. Exh. 4, at 3:30-3:33. The officers’ BWC footage later 

shows Estrada recovering a gun from a vegetable patch in the yard 

then clearing it of multiple rounds of ammunition into the grass. 

Officer Estrada was the sole witness at Mr. Jackson’s 

evidentiary hearing. Estrada testified that as he and Officer Arce 

approached in their squad car, he saw Jackson jump the fence into 

the housing complex courtyard and begin to run. Estrada exited the 

car, walked up to the entrance gate, and “saw it was open, so [he] 

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entered the gate and started to approach the subject asking him to 

stop.”1 Hr’g. Tr. at 20:4-5. Jackson ignored this command and 

continued running. Estrada testified that as he ran, Jackson was 

holding his side, clutching his waistband in a manner that led 

Estrada to believe, based on his experience, that Jackson was 

concealing a weapon. Id. at 22:25-21:8. 

 In his motion, Jackson argues that his seizure was unlawful 

because the officers lacked a reasonable basis for suspecting him of 

involvement in criminal activity as required to conduct an 

investigative stop pursuant to Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, (1968). 

He accompanies his motion with an affidavit in which he states that 

he was an invited guest at the CHA complex and was not loitering or 

trespassing, nor was he “holding [his] side” as he traveled away 

from the officers. 

II.

Mr. Jackson’s Fourth Amendment theory is at odds with both the 

law and the facts. As Jackson correctly acknowledges, to conduct a 

lawful Terry stop, the patrolling officers needed only a reasonable 

suspicion, based on the totality of the circumstances known to them, 

that “criminal activity was afoot,” and that Jackson may have been 

involved. Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119, 123 (2000). While 

1 The footage from Officer Arce’s BWC shows Estrada pushing the gate 

open and walking through it, so I interpret this testimony to mean 

not that the gate was wide open, but that it was sufficiently ajar 

for Estrada to see that he could push it open. See Arce BWC at 1:50-

53. 

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Jackson’s “mere presence in an area of expected criminal activity 

does not in and of itself justify an investigatory stop,” his 

“location remains relevant” to the analysis, as does his “evasive 

behavior.” United States v. Baskin, 401 F.3d 788, 791 (7th Cir. 

2005). Here, the parties agree that Jackson jumped over a six-foot 

fence, even though there was an open gate just steps away, and that 

he began running through the courtyard, away from the officers. These 

circumstances are sufficient to warrant the officers’ reasonable 

suspicion, see States v. Lenoir, 318 F.3d 725, 729 (7th Cir. 2003) 

(“a person’s flight upon seeing the police approach in a high crime 

area establishes reasonable suspicion to justify a Terry stop”), 

which was enhanced by their observation that Jackson was holding his 

side in a manner consistent with concealing a weapon. 

With respect to the facts, although Mr. Jackson disputes that 

he was holding his side, I find based on both the BWC footage and 

Officer Estrada’s credible live testimony that both officers 

perceived him to be doing so. Officer Estrada acknowledged, in 

response to questioning by Mr. Jackson’s counsel, that at the time 

of the arrest, he observed Jackson’s pants “hanging down off his 

back side,” and that Jackson’s posture as he ran “could be” 

consistent with holding his pants up. Hr’g. Tr. at 80:4-6, 12. But 

even probable cause—a higher standard than reasonable suspicion—

“deals not with hard certainties but with probabilities” and “allows 

room for reasonable mistakes.” Abbott v. Sangamon Cnty., Ill., 705 

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F.3d 706, 714 (7th Cir. 2013). Even if Jackson was holding up his 

pants rather than concealing the weapon that Estrada later saw him 

throw over a fence, the inference the officers drew from his posture 

was reasonable based on their experience. 

Then there is the matter of when Jackson was actually seized. 

In Mr. Jackson’s view, his seizure occurred at the moment Officer 

Estrada made a “show of authority” by “kicking in a gate” (though 

that is not what the video shows), then chasing him while issuing 

verbal commands and drawing his weapon. But that’s not right. “While 

an officer’s application of physical force always constitutes a 

seizure, a ‘show of authority’ alone is insufficient; an officer’s 

show of authority becomes a seizure only if the person at whom it is 

directed actually submits to that authority.... In other words, there 

are two kinds of seizures: those effected through physical force and 

those effected through a show of authority and ‘submission to the 

assertion of authority.’” United States v. Griffin, 652 F.3d 793, 

798 (7th Cir. 2011) (quoting California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 

626 (1991)) (emphasis in Griffin). 

Because Mr. Jackson submitted to Officer Estrada’s authority 

only after finding himself cornered behind an apartment building, 

that is when his seizure occurred. See id. at 800. (“If a suspect is 

not seized during the entire time he is being pursued by police, 

then the seizure does not occur until he submits to the show of 

authority or the pursuing officer resorts to force to stop the 

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suspect’s flight.”). By that time, not only had Officers Estrada and 

Arce observed him jumping a fence in apparent flight and holding his 

side in a manner that suggested he was concealing a weapon, but 

Officer Estrada had actually seen the weapon and seen Mr. Jackson 

“launch” it into a neighboring yard. I have no trouble concluding 

that at that point, Mr. Jackson’s arrest was supported by probable 

cause. Accordingly, there is no basis for quashing his arrest or 

excluding evidence obtained as a result. 

III. 

 For the foregoing reasons, the motion to quash arrest and 

exclude evidence is denied. 

 ENTER ORDER: 

_____________________________ 

 Elaine E. Bucklo

 United States District Judge 

Dated: March 20, 2023 

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