United States v. Cook

Defendant was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced to 120 months in prison. The court concluded that the district court did not err by denying defendant's motion to suppress the firearm where there was no Fourth Amendment seizure here until the officers removed defendant from the idling car. The court also noted that the wig wag lights activated by the officers are different from the full light bar which is used to notify motorists in moving vehicles that they are required to stop. Here, officers activated the wig wag lights in order to identify themselves as police for the safety of all parties involved. A reasonable person seeing the wig wag lights under these circumstances would have thought that he was still "at liberty to ignore the police presence and go about his business." Because defendant was not unlawfully seized, the district court did not err in denying his motion to suppress. The court also concluded that the district court did not err by admitting circumstantial evidence that connected defendant to a shooting death involving the gun because it was highly probative of defendant's possession of the weapon. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Cook" on Justia Law