Opinion ID: 1994085
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Ammunition

Text: Young argues that the protective sweep did not legally extend to either the bedrooms or to the space between the mattresses and the box springs because Young had told the officers about all of the people in the home and there was no report of gunfire or other exigent circumstances warranting a search of those areas. We disagree. As noted above, the trial court credited testimony that the Task Force officers went to Young's house with an arrest warrant for him knowing that he was suspected of being dangerous and unpredictable and a threat to the community and that all of the events at issue happened rather quickly. These factual conclusions have basis in the record and are not clearly erroneous. Therefore, we will defer to those factual findings. Prince, supra, 825 A.2d at 931. A protective sweep is a quick and limited search of premises, incident to an arrest and conducted to protect the safety of police officers or others. Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325, 327, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 108 L.Ed.2d 276 (1990) (cited in Harris, supra, 629 A.2d at 493). Two kinds of protective sweeps are reasonable and lawful under the Fourth Amendment. Harris, supra, 629 A.2d at 493 (citing Buie, supra, 494 U.S. at 334, 110 S.Ct. 1093). First, police may as an incident to [an] arrest ..., as a precautionary matter and without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, look in closets and other spaces immediately adjoining the place of arrest from which an attack could be immediately launched. Id. (citing Buie, supra, 494 U.S. at 334, 110 S.Ct. 1093) (emphasis added). Second, police may undertake a broader search of the home, i.e., beyond immediately adjoining spaces, when they are aware of `articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences from those facts, would warrant a reasonably prudent officer in believing that the area to be swept harbors an individual posing a danger to those on the arrest scene.' Id. (citing Buie, supra, 494 U.S. at 334, 110 S.Ct. 1093) (emphasis added). Thus, protective sweeps of areas beyond those immediately adjoining the place of arrest require at least reasonable suspicion, while protective sweeps limited to areas immediately adjoining the place of arrest do not. Here, taking the facts and all reasonable inferences therefrom ... in favor of sustaining the trial court ruling Prince, supra, 825 A.2d at 931, the court correctly found that the officers had reasonable suspicion to conduct the broader-type protective sweep that revealed the ammunition. First, the officers knew that Young was a murder suspect and that his arrest warrant for failure to appear was based on a separate CPWL case. Second, Young had not yet been positively identified as the man they were looking for at the time the protective sweep commenced. Thus, considering the early hour, the nature of Young's criminal charges, and the fact that Young had not yet been identified as being the man they were looking for, a reasonably prudent officer would be warranted in believing that there may have been people in the basement and that they may have pos[ed] a danger to those on the arrest scene. Moreover, the trial court found that the protective sweep and Young's apprehension and identification took place in a very short period of time. Given that, at the time they began the protective sweep, the police could not be certain that they had apprehended Young, it was not unreasonable for the officers to look for people in the basement. [2] Having established that the officers had reasonable suspicion to look for people in the basement bedrooms, in light of the officers' experience with finding people hidden in odd places, including between mattresses and box springs, it was also reasonable for them to look between the mattresses and box springs when trying to find and secure all people in the basement sleeping areas. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court's determination that the recovery of the ammunition did not violate Young's Fourth Amendment rights.