Court Opinion

ID: 9496087
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:17:45.456084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:21.858898
License: Public Domain

SHEDD, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
By the time that the police detained Quarles, the 911 caller — -who remained on the telephone line and kept Quarles within his sight — had indirectly identified himself to police by stating that Quarles had killed his brother and beaten the case; and he had told the police that Quarles had an outstanding federal warrant against him for illegal firearm possession, that a federal agent named Perris Smith was looking for Quarles, and that this federal agent had told him to call the police if he saw Quarles. The 911 caller had also told police that Quarles was then in the company of another individual who was also the subject of an outstanding warrant and that Quarles (and/or his companions) was carrying a gun and drugs. Additionally, the 911 caller had provided the police with a specific description of Quarles and the specific location where they could find him.
Although it is a close call, I believe that under the Terry standard, the information set forth above (particularly about the warrant and the federal agent), construed in the light most favorable to the government, see United States v. Seidman, 156 F.3d 542, 547 (4th Cir.1998), gave the police more than an “inchoate and unpar-ticularized suspicion or ‘hunch,’ ” that Quarles was wanted or otherwise was involved in criminal activity. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Accordingly, I concur in the result reached by the majority concerning the Terry stop.1
I write separately to note that at the time of the Terry stop, it does not appear that the 911 caller had yet provided the police with his name, his exact location, or a description of his automobile; and he had not yet indicated any willingness to meet with them.2 Because it appears that the 911 caller only gave that information to police after the Terry stop, it should not be considered in the reasonable suspicion analysis. See Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 271, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000) (“The reasonableness of official suspicion must be measured by what the officers knew before they conducted their search”).3

. I agree with the majority that the scope of the Terry stop was reasonable and that Quarles' Commerce Clause arguments lack merit.

. At the suppression hearing, the government introduced into evidence the "CAD report,” which the district court described as being "sort of a shorthand, typed-in rendition of what is being sent out” by the dispatch. J.A. 75. Quarles introduced the 911 call audiotape. Matching the CAD report with the transcript of the audiotape provides a time frame of events.

.See also Leverette v. Bell, 247 F.3d 160, 168 n. 5 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 993, 122 S.Ct. 460, 151 L.Ed.2d 378 (2001) (“the reliability of a tip must ... be viewed at the time the search becomes necessary”); United States v. Ienco, 182 F.3d 517, 524 (7th Cir.1999) ("reasonable suspicion must exist at the time the officer stops an individual, ... it cannot come after the fact”).