Court Opinion

ID: 9672838
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:01:16.537402+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:18.665094
License: Public Domain

Allen, J.
(concurring). I write separately in concurrence to distinguish this case from People v Kirchoff, 74 Mich App 641; 254 NW2d 793 (1977). In the instant case, the only facts known to the officers was that a person standing behind a row of apartment buildings at 5 a.m., an area where a suspicious person had recently been reported to the officers, fled as the officers’ patrol car approached. These facts provided a sufficient basis for a limited Terry v Ohio1 type investigatory stop. But they did not justify laying the defendant on the ground and handcuffing him.
At 5 a.m., and in view of the earlier report to the officers concerning a suspicious person in the apartment building area, it would have been appropriate to inquire of the individual what he was doing. Even in light of the fact that the individual fled, there was no indication of criminal activity which, at that point, warranted arrest without prior questioning of the fleeing person’s activities. The handcuffing was an arrest which was a serious intrusion upon the freedom of the individual and precluded the use of the statement made by defendant upon arrest.
In Kirchoff, supra, the defendant was apprehended by the police about 11:20 p.m., shortly *542after he fled from police after observing their patrol car. The police attempted to make an initial investigatory stop but the defendant again fled and some 100 yards later threw away a knapsack in which was found packets of marijuana. It was concluded that the initial stop in Kirchoff was warranted. Such a stop would have been warranted in the instant case. Further, the Court found that the knapsack had been "abandoned” by the defendant and thus, under Hester v United States, 265 US 57; 44 S Ct 445; 68 L Ed 898 (1924), the search of the knapsack’s contents and their admissibility in evidence was lawful. The abandonment rationale is non-existent in the instant case and may not be used to justify the introduction in evidence of defendant’s incriminating statement made following the handcuffing. In my opinion, the type of intrusion made in the instant case exceeded a Terry investigative stop and therefore I agree with the majority that, in this case, the exclusionary rule should apply.

 392 US 1; 88 S Ct 1868; 20 L Ed 2d 889 (1968).