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Car keys could be seized under Terry in a homicide investigation

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant injected himself into a homicide investigation, and the officer's patted him down and found car keys, which they seized. "They acted reasonably in removing the car keys from Defendant's person to prevent him from compromising their investigation. The subsequent pat down of Defendant when he was placed in the police wagon while the premises were secured was also reasonable. Defendant had at that point intentionally injected himself into the homicide investigation, and based upon his behavior, the Detectives suspected that Defendant could be involved in the crime that they were investigating." United States v. Walker, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72907 (E.D. Pa. September 23, 2008).*

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 27, 2008 (boomark / email).