181 A.3d 633
D.C.2018Background
- At ~8:08 a.m., a 911 caller (anonymous, no callback) reported a black male in a blue "Army-type" jacket "shooting a gun in the air" on the 4500 block of Texas Ave. SE, heading toward Ridge Road. Officers were dispatched nearby.
- Within minutes officers located Everett Miles walking on Alabama Avenue a few blocks from the reported location; officers testified he matched the caller's description and was the only person on the street.
- Officer Sanchez drove to the corner, confronted Miles, and (per suppression-hearing testimony credited by the trial court) asked him to stop; Miles then ran, was chased briefly, and detained. Officers recovered a gun from his waistband.
- Miles moved to suppress the gun evidence, arguing the Terry stop lacked reasonable articulable suspicion because the anonymous tip was not sufficiently corroborated and Miles’s flight was equivocal/provoked.
- The trial court denied suppression, found Miles’s flight showed consciousness of guilt, and he was later convicted of multiple gun offenses; the appellate majority reverses the denial of suppression and reverses convictions, while a dissent would have affirmed.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument (Miles) | Defendant's Argument (Government) | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether officers had reasonable suspicion to make a Terry stop based on anonymous 911 tip + observed facts | 911 tip was not sufficiently corroborated: description was imprecise and flight was provoked/equivocal, so no reliable basis to suspect Miles had a gun | Anonymous 911 tip (traceable) + close temporal/spatial corroboration (matching description, location) and Miles’s flight gave officers the minimal suspicion required | Reversed: majority holds totality of circumstances did not yield reasonable suspicion—anonymous tip lacked corroboration of illegality and flight was too equivocal/provoked to corroborate the tip |
| Relevance of flight to corroborate anonymous tip | Flight here was provoked (officer blocked path/approached) and could reflect fear of police, not consciousness of guilt | Flight (headlong/unprovoked) is a classic corroborating factor (citing Wardlow) and here enhanced probable suspicion when combined with the tip | Majority: Flight insufficient because it was not the unprovoked, suspicious flight in Wardlow; provocation and lack of other incriminating signs made flight equivocal |
| Effect of 911 anonymity and traceability on tip reliability | Caller withheld callback; record showed dispatcher had no callback number, undermining Navarette inference that 911 calls deter false tips | 911 calls are more reliable because callers would think twice before calling; Navarette supports giving weight to 911 reports | Majority: record showed caller did not provide callback, so Navarette’s traceability safeguard was not present here; tip required more corroboration |
| Use of post-suppression (trial) testimony/clarifications about officers’ conduct | Miles argued provocation; trial testimony clarified officers’ blocking of sidewalk which undermines claim that flight indicated guilt | Government treated trial testimony as confirming suppression-hearing facts; contends defendant failed to preserve narrow provocation claim | Majority: considers trial testimony as clarifying and finds flight was provoked; dissent objects to relying on untimely/contradicted trial testimony |
Key Cases Cited
- Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (establishing standards for investigative stops)
- Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266 (anonymous tip describing a person with a gun requires independent corroboration of illegality)
- Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119 (unprovoked, headlong flight can contribute to reasonable suspicion)
- Navarette v. California, 572 U.S. 393 (2014) (911 calls may carry indicia of reliability because callers can be traced)
- United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266 (totality-of-the-circumstances reasonable-suspicion framework)
- Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690 (appellate de novo review of reasonable suspicion/legal conclusions)
- Plummer v. United States, 983 A.3d 323 (D.C. 2009) (when anonymous tip alleges a gun, police generally must corroborate evidence of a gun)
- Jackson v. United States, 109 A.3d 1105 (D.C. 2015) (upholding stop where anonymous caller asserted eyewitness observation of a gun and officers corroborated details)