People v. Simpson

Defendant and his codefendant were convicted after bench trial of four counts of home invasion with guns, while residents were in the house. Court properly denied pretrial motion to quash arrest and suppress evidence. Police stopped codefendants in early morning hours, immediately after receiving dispatch that suspects from a home invasion were fleeing in a car which matched their description, on the road and in the direction where they were travelling; no other vehicles were on the road. Reasonable suspicion for Terry stop can be derived, in part, when police observe persons similar to those believed fleeing from recent crime scene when found in general area where suspects would be expected. Patdown search was justified given that home invasion by two armed perpetrators is inherently dangerous crime. (LAVIN and MASON, concurring.)