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VI: Tardy response to vague shots fired call had no RS for stopping defendant

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Responding to a shots fired call 25-30 minutes after where officers had no real description of the shooter or the street where shots came from did not give officers reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant. People v. Fredericks, 2011 V.I. LEXIS 1 (Super. Ct. January 5, 2011): The facts known to the police in this case were: 1) there was an anonymous report of shots fired on Garden Street; 2) they responded 25 to 30 minutes after the shots were fired; and 3) upon their response the officers encountered a group of men on a street which intersected with Garden Street who were, by the officers own testimony, not engaged in any criminal, or even suspicious, behavior. Conspicuously absent from the facts known to the officers was any description of any person or persons who fired the reported shots...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 11, 2011 (boomark / email).