U.S. v. Street

In prosecution on armed robbery charge, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress statement defendant gave to police during Terry stop in midst of police investigation of recent robbery. Record showed that: (1) police received report that two African-American men had robbed cell-phone store and fled in white SUV; (2) five minutes after police learned of robbery, GSP signal from stolen cell-phone indicated that SUV was at local Wal-Mart; (3) police spotted three African-American men near white SUV and Wal-Mart entrance; (4) one of said men ran as police approached, and police saw robbery proceeds in SUV; (5) police conducted controlled evacuation of Wal-Mart, stopped defendant who was only African-American in customer crowd and asked and received identification information from defendant before letting him leave store. Ct. rejected defendant’s claim that police stopped him only because of his race and sex. Also, govt. did not waive instant Terry issue, even though it did not file objection to Magistrate Judge’s recommendation that included finding that police lacked reasonable suspicion to stop defendant, since govt. was not required to file objection where Magistrate Judge had denied defendant’s motion to suppress on different ground, and govt. was free to argue alternative arguments in support of said denial.