Opinion ID: 164194
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Initial Seizure of the Handgun

Text: 6 When reviewing a district court's denial of a motion to suppress, we accept the factual findings unless they are clearly erroneous and consider the evidence in a light most favorable to the government. United States v. Elliott, 107 F.3d 810, 813 (10th Cir.1997). We review de novo the district court's legal conclusion concerning whether a Fourth Amendment violation occurred. Id. 7 The district court denied the motion to suppress because it concluded that Officer Cyr's opening of the bag and temporary seizure of the weapon were permissible under the community caretaker doctrine. On appeal the government has conceded that the community caretaker doctrine is inapplicable to the facts in this case. 1 Instead, the government argues that Officer Cyr was justified in opening the bag under the rationale of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). 8 In Terry, the Supreme Court held that during an investigatory stop police officers were entitled to make a limited search for weapons that might be used to harm them when they have a reasonable, articulable suspicion of danger. 392 U.S. at 24, 88 S.Ct. 1868. This rationale is not necessarily limited to a frisk of the person under investigation. See Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1047, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983) ( Terry need not be read as restricting the preventative search to the person of the detained suspect.). 9 If the police detect a weapon or contraband during a Terry search, they are entitled to seize it. This is true whether the Terry search is a simple frisk or a limited search beyond the person of the suspect. See Long, 463 U.S. at 1050, 103 S.Ct. 3469 (noting that the Fourth Amendment does not require an officer to ignore contraband discovered during a Terry search of a car); Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 375-76, 113 S.Ct. 2130, 124 L.Ed.2d 334 (1993). In Dickerson, the Supreme Court analyzed the justification for such a seizure by analogizing to the plain view doctrine: 10 If a police officer lawfully pats down a suspect's outer clothing and feels an object whose contour or mass makes its identity immediately apparent, there has been no invasion of the suspect's privacy beyond that already authorized by the officer's search for weapons; if the object is contraband, its warrantless seizure would be justified by the same practical considerations that inhere in the plain-view context. 11 Id. The Supreme Court concluded that a plain feel exception to the warrant requirement would justify the seizure of contraband detected during a pat down because the officer knew the nature of the item. 2 Thus, upon detection of a weapon or contraband the officer may reach into a pocket and seize the item. Id. A similar analysis justifies Officer Cyr's seizure of the gun in this case. Officer Cyr only opened the bag after his Terry stop investigation revealed that it contained a weapon. Such an action was reasonable under the circumstances. 12 Thomson concedes that the police had a reasonable articulable suspicion sufficient to justify the initial encounter with him and the pat down of his person. Likewise, Thomson does not object to Officer Cyr's questions concerning the weapon. Instead, Thomson argues that allowing Cyr to open the bag and seize the weapon under these circumstances would impermissibly extend Terry to allow a search of any container in the vicinity of the person being questioned. We disagree. 13 In this case, Officer Cyr both knew that the bag contained a weapon and had a reasonable articulable suspicion that Thomson was dangerous. His knowledge that the handgun was in the bag resulted not only from the statements of two witnesses, but also from Thomson's acknowledgment that the bag contained a handgun. Furthermore, Cyr had information indicating that Thomson had made repeated threats against his co-workers and his behavior that day caused the other employees to lock themselves in an office. Allowing Officer Cyr to open the bag under these circumstances does not authorize a broader search. Indeed, in this case Officer Cyr did not conduct a general search of Thomson's desk drawers or Thomson's office. Instead, his actions were reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place. Terry, 392 U.S. at 20, 88 S.Ct. 1868. In opening the bag, Cyr's actions were limited to what was needed to seize the weapon discovered during his investigation of a potentially dangerous suspect. Accordingly, we conclude that removing the weapon from the bag was permissible under the Fourth Amendment.