Opinion ID: 2751496
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Detention of Defendant Arbery

Text: In addition, Officer Melendez’s brief detention of Defendant Arbery for approximately one minute and “frisk” for weapons were both based on the officers’ safety concerns and did not require individualized suspicion. “[F]or safety reasons, officers may, in some circumstances, briefly detain individuals about whom they have no individualized reasonable suspicion of criminal activity in the course of conducting a valid Terry stop as to other related individuals.” Lewis, 674 F.3d at 1306-08 (upholding as reasonable officers’ brief detention of four men found in the parking lot of a high crime area, even though only two men admitted possessing guns, based on the officers’ safety concerns and the need to “control the movements of nearby associates and exercise command over the situation”). 6 Case: 14-11784 Date Filed: 11/14/2014 Page: 7 of 8 Likewise, a “frisk” may be justified to protect officers and others nearby, so long as it is limited in scope to an intrusion designed to discover weapons. Terry, 392 U.S. at 29, 88 S. Ct. at 1884. “[W]hen an officer legitimately encounters an individual, whether he is investigating that individual or not, the officer may reasonably believe himself to be in danger and may wish to determine quickly whether that person is armed.” United States v. Bonds, 829 F.2d 1072, 1074 (11th Cir. 1987).3 When Officer Melendez encountered Defendant Arbery, he knew that: (1) Williams, the man they were trying to arrest, had a propensity for violence; (2) a few weeks before, Williams and another individual allegedly fired a gun in the presence of officers, and was wanted for aggravated assault; (3) Williams and his associates might be armed and might respond with either flight or fight; (4) the area around Stafford Avenue was a high-crime area; and (5) people in the neighborhood were known to be confrontational with police who responded to calls. Under these circumstances, it was reasonable for Officer Melendez to briefly assert control over Arbery, whom he believed was one of Williams’s associates, for safety reasons by ordering Arbery to lay down on the ground and then frisking Arbery for weapons on the outside of his pants. 3 Because Arbery’s detention was based on safety concerns, not on reasonable suspicion that he was engaged in criminal activity, the fact that Officer Melendez testified at the suppression hearing that he did not have reasonable suspicion as to Arbery is immaterial. 7 Case: 14-11784 Date Filed: 11/14/2014 Page: 8 of 8 Finally, there is no merit to Defendant Arbery’s claim that his brief detention (before Officer Melendez found the firearm) amounted to an arrest. See United States v. Acosta, 363 F.3d 1141, 1146-47 (11th Cir. 2004) (explaining that “officers may take reasonable steps to ensure their safety so long as they possess an articulable and objectively reasonable belief that the suspect is potentially dangerous” and that “an investigatory stop does not necessarily ripen into an arrest because an officer draws his weapon, handcuffs a suspect, orders a suspect to lie face down on the ground, or secures a suspect in the back of a patrol car”) (quotation marks and citations omitted). The scope and intrusiveness of Officer Melendez’s brief detention of Arbery was reasonably related to the officer’s need to ensure his own safety and the safety of others around him while other officers determined that Palmer was not Williams. For these reasons, the district court did not err in denying Defendant Arbery’s motion to suppress the firearm. AFFIRMED. 8