U.S. v. Green

In prosecution on charge of unlawful possession of firearm by felon, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress firearm seized by private security guard at public housing project, under circumstances where: (1) security guard subdued defendant in public housing laundry room; and (2) security guard called Chicago Police Dept. after recovering firearm from defendant during said encounter. While Dist. Ct. found that security guard had no reasonable cause to stop or search defendant, Fourth Amendment was not applicable, where security guard was not agent of police, but rather was only employee of private entity that had contract to provide security services to housing authority. As such, in absence of evidence establishing that security guard was government agent, security guard was not state actor who was subject to Fourth Amendment.