Commonwealth v. M.B.

Police were on patrol in Kensington when they observed a car being driven by M.B. with “excessive tint.” As they followed him, they reported that he made several “evasive maneuvers’ they believed M.B. was making to avoid being pulled over. Once the officers pulled the car over, they observed him acting “extremely nervously”. Officers asked M.B. whether he had ever been arrested for a firearm and when his last arrest had been. After running his information through the police database they determined M.B. had lied about his criminal history so he was removed from the car for a “safety frisk”. Before the frisk could be conducted, M.B. fled from the officers and he was tackled and apprehended a short distance away. Police then recovered a firearm from the console (later testing revealed M.B.’s DNA was on the gun). The defense filed as motion to suppress, successfully arguing that the police did not have reasonable suspicion to believe that M.B. was armed and dangerous at the time they attempted to frisk him in violation of his fourth amendment rights, and therefore the firearm was excluded from evidence. The Commonwealth was forced to agree to all charges being dismissed.