Opinion ID: 3047422
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Encounter with Police

Text: The officers walked south from the intersection, crossing Jackson Street toward Fourth Street. “Approximately halfway between Fourth Street and Fifth Street, [they] saw [Crandell] walking toward them.”3 United States v. Crandell, 509 F. Supp. 2d 435, 439 2 Officer Drishti described the Housing Authority as approximately twenty buildings located in an area that measures four blocks by two blocks. 3 When approaching Crandell, Officer Valez observed that he was wearing “loose jeans” and a “tan shirt.” Valez was unsure 4 (D.N.J. 2007). Crandell did not react when he saw the three uniformed officers and kept walking in their direction. The officers approached Crandell in either a semi-circle or line formation and Officer Valez spoke to him. The District Court notes that the testimony of Officers Drishti and Valez differs slightly with regard to what the officers said prior to patting Crandell down. Id. at 440. Both accounts, however, indicate Valez spoke to Crandell before he began the pat-down. Officer Valez testified: As [Crandell] walked toward[] us, I stopped him . . . . and I told him I received information that [he] might have a weapon on [him] and I wanted to give [him] a pat down for our protection[.] I told [Crandell] he was free to leave at any time. . . . [Then Crandell] put his arms up . . . . [and,] as I was patting [Crandell] down, he hit my arm, he turned around and he ran [and] the weapon fell from the back of his pants. Officer Drishti testified: Officer Valez said to [Crandell], is it all right if we pat you down for our safety? You can leave at any time. And [Crandell] said, yeah, what’s this all about? He started to get towards the fence[;] there whether he could see Crandell’s dreadlocks beneath the towel on his head, but was nonetheless confident it was Crandell because “[I] know his face.” 5 was a fence there. I was on . . . Officer Valez’s left, Officer Miller was on his right, and as he was picking up to put his hand like toward[] the fence, he was asking, what’s this all about? And Officer Valez said, we got a call you might have a handgun on you. At that moment, as Officer Valez started to try to pat him down, he may have touched him once or twice, as soon as he got like towards the back area, Mr. Crandell turned abruptly and like knocked [Officer Valez’s] arm to the side and a handgun flew from the lower back area onto the sidewalk, and Mr. Crandell then proceeded to run south on Jackson . . . . According to Drishti (obviously speaking with at least some overstatement), the whole event took “a couple of seconds.” Officer Miller recovered the gun while Officers Drishti and Valez chased Crandell, but were unable to catch him at that time. Thereafter, a warrant was issued and Crandell was arrested.