United States v. Devon ColemanUnited States v. Devon Coleman
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Abingdon. James P. Jones, Senior District Judge. (1:18-cr-00025-JPJ-PMS-28)
Before NIEMEYER, AGEE, and QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Agee wrote the opinion, in which Judge Niemeyer and Judge Quattlebaum joined.
ARGUED: Michael Allen Bragg, Abingdon, Virginia, for Appellant. Jean Barrett Hudson, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Thomas T. Cullen, United States Attorney,
AGEE, Circuit Judge:
A federal grand jury indicted Devon Scott Coleman on three counts after a deputy sheriff with the Washington County Sheriff‘s Office (WCSO) conducted an investigative stop and subsequently discovered a firearm and drugs, among other items, in his vehicle. Coleman moved to suppress those items and his attendant statements, arguing that the deputy did not have reasonable suspicion to perform the investigative stop. The district court denied that motion and, for the reasons that follow, we affirm.
I.
A.
As students were arriving at Patrick Henry High School in Washington County, Virginia, on the morning of Wednesday, September 20, 2017, a school administrator reported to the WCSO that an unknown man was parked erratically on the campus. The administrator described the man—later identified as Coleman—as asleep or passed out in his vehicle with a crossbow visible in the backseat. J.A. 38. Deputy Sheriff David Johnson of the WSCO, who primarily served as a school resource officer, was dispatched to the school to investigate. When he arrived on the campus, the school administrator identified the reported vehicle, a Pontiac Sunfire, in the student/faculty parking lot. The vehicle, which was stopped but running, was primarily parked in a travel lane, with the brake lights engaged and the front end partially positioned into a marked parking spot. The bulk of the vehicle sat in a travel lane.
Deputy Johnson later testified that he was immediately concerned for the driver‘s safety, the school‘s safety; that is the students, the staff, the faculty. [The school administrator] mentioned a crossbow in the back of the vehicle, which was also a safety concern. J.A. 38. As for the crossbow, he believed its possession was illegal under
Deputy Johnson pulled behind the vehicle, but when he opened the door of his
Deputy Johnson administered Coleman a field sobriety test, while another deputy searched the vehicle. That search revealed marijuana, crystal methamphetamine, individual baggies, a scale, a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver, and the crossbow. Coleman was arrested immediately.
B.
A federal grand jury subsequently indicted twenty-eight defendants, including Coleman, for participating in a drug trafficking organization. Coleman was named in three counts: conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, in violation of
The Government countered that Coleman could have been committing various criminal activities—e.g., a parking violation, unlawfully operating a vehicle, trespassing, or possessing a crossbow on school grounds—all of which created reasonable suspicion to support the investigative stop. With regard to the crossbow, the Government argued that Deputy Johnson had reasonable suspicion because, although
After an evidentiary hearing, during which the district court heard testimony from Deputy Johnson and viewed footage from his dashcam, it denied Coleman‘s motion
Coleman proceeded to trial, and a jury convicted him on all three counts.3 The court sentenced him to 211 months’ imprisonment. Coleman timely appealed.
We have jurisdiction under
II.
On appeal, Coleman challenges the validity of the investigative stop, arguing that Deputy Johnson did not have reasonable suspicion that he was engaged in criminal activity because possessing a crossbow on school property is not illegal under Virginia law and, in any event, Deputy Johnson‘s mistake of law on that point was unreasonable. However, we need not reach these arguments. Even if Coleman had not possessed the crossbow, the totality of the remaining circumstances nonetheless provided Deputy Johnson with reasonable suspicion to conduct the investigative stop. Alternatively, we reach the same conclusion when considering Coleman‘s crossbow possession in our analysis, assuming, without deciding, in that scenario that Virginia law does not prohibit possession of a crossbow on school property. Accordingly, we affirm the district court‘s denial of Coleman‘s motion to suppress.
A.
The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
Applying Terry, we have since held that [a]n officer may stop and briefly detain a person when the officer has reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person has been, is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity. United States v. Montieth, 662 F.3d 660, 665 (4th Cir. 2011) (quoting United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 227 (1985)). [A] court must look to the totality of the circumstances in determining whether the officer had a particularized and objective basis for suspecting criminal activity. United States v. Foster, 634 F.3d 243, 246 (4th Cir. 2011). Because reasonable suspicion is an objective test, we examine the facts within the knowledge of [the officer] to determine the presence or nonexistence of reasonable suspicion; we do not examine the subjective beliefs of [the officer] to determine whether he thought that the facts constituted reasonable suspicion. United States v. Foreman, 369 F.3d 776, 781 (4th Cir. 2004).
Of course, [w]hile such a detention does not require probable cause, it does require something more than an inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or hunch. United States v. Sprinkle, 106 F.3d 613, 617 (4th Cir. 1997) (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 27). At the same time, as the Supreme Court has explained, [t]he reasonable suspicion inquiry falls considerably short of 51% accuracy. Kansas v. Glover, 140 S. Ct. 1183, 1188 (2020) (internal quotation marks omitted).
B.
We are convinced that, even if Coleman had not possessed the crossbow, Deputy Johnson would have had reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigative stop. This is because a reasonable officer could conclude based on the totality of the circumstances that Coleman was engaged in various unlawful activities, namely, trespassing on school grounds, commission of a parking violation, and unlawfully operating a vehicle under the influence.
Removing the crossbow from the calculation, Deputy Johnson, who primarily served as a school resource officer, was dispatched to the high school to investigate a school administrator‘s report to law enforcement that, as students were arriving that morning, a sleeping or unconscious unidentified man (who was plainly a non-student) was parked erratically in the school parking lot. This setting is a factor in evaluating the stop.
The fact that school grounds constituted the location of the unknown individual‘s suspicious activity would immediately heighten a reasonable officer‘s concern, particularly that of a school resource officer. Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119, 124 (2000) ([O]fficers are not required to ignore the relevant characteristics of a location in determining whether the circumstances are sufficiently suspicious to warrant further investigation.); see also Gonzalez v. Huerta, 826 F.3d 854, 858 & n.7 (5th Cir. 2016) (recognizing the sensitivity of responding to reports of suspicious activity at a school by citing officers’ remarks that [their] job is a little bit different . . . . [they‘ve] got
One such safety concern is the presence of an unidentified individual on a school campus. The School Visitors Policy for Washington County Public Schools, which includes the school here, directs that [u]pon arriving at a school, all visitors must report to the administrative office; [u]nauthorized persons who fail to leave the school grounds . . . as requested will be considered trespassers in violation of
School administrators wield broad authority in ensuring compliance with such policies and statutes. Cole v. Buchanan Cty. Sch. Bd., 328 F. App‘x 204, 209 (4th Cir. 2009) (unpublished) (School officials have broad authority and responsibility for assuring that individuals conduct themselves appropriately while on school grounds. A school board‘s authority encompasses the authority to remove or bar from entry an individual who threatens the safety of students or staff, or who disrupts the orderliness of the educational process. (citations omitted)). Accordingly, even if the school administrator‘s report alone would not have permitted a Terry stop, police may arrive on scene to a report of an unauthorized individual and unusual activity on school grounds—and indeed, respond appropriately when they do so. This factor is properly considered as part of the totality of the circumstances informing Deputy Johnson‘s conduct. See Walker v. Donahoe, 3 F.4th 676, 685 (4th Cir. 2021) (The 911 call about [the defendant walking with an assault rifle in the general direction of a school]—though insufficient alone to create reasonable suspicion—substantiates the perception that something was amiss.).
The circumstances Deputy Johnson encountered upon arriving at the school reinforced the unusual and alarming nature of Coleman‘s presence on the campus. Id. at 685-86. After Deputy Johnson arrived and the school administrator identified Coleman‘s vehicle, Deputy Johnson observed that the vehicle, which was running and had its brake lights engaged, was haphazardly positioned and impeding a travel lane. Deputy Johnson‘s initial on-scene observations thus added to his calculation that something was awry. See Flores v. City of Palacios, 381 F.3d 391, 402-03 (5th Cir. 2004) (holding that a vehicle parked on the wrong side of a two-way street in
After pulling his police cruiser behind the vehicle, Deputy Johnson opened his door to exit, but Coleman started to drive away. This, too, understandably aroused Deputy Johnson‘s suspicion because such a maneuver is often considered evasive. See United States v. Bumpers, 705 F.3d 168, 176 (4th Cir. 2013) (considering the defendant‘s evasive activity of leaving the premises at a quick pace in a reasonable suspicion analysis where the officer believed the defendant was trespassing); United States v. Lyles, 946 F.2d 78, 80 (8th Cir. 1991) (considering, in a reasonable suspicion analysis, the fact that [w]hen the officers stopped behind the [defendants‘] car and turned on the flashing red lights, the car began to drive away) (cited with approval by United States v. Smith, 396 F.3d 579, 586 (4th Cir. 2005)). Given the totality of the circumstances, Deputy Johnson initiated his emergency lights to conduct an investigative stop. At that point, he was concerned for the driver‘s safety, the school‘s safety; that is the students, the staff, the faculty. J.A. 38.
These facts are sufficient to support a finding of reasonable suspicion for an investigative stop because a reasonable officer could suspect that Coleman was trespassing on school grounds, in violation of the school board policy and
We also note that the circumstances of Coleman‘s presence on the school campus suggested other illegal activity. For instance, given Coleman‘s markedly lopsided parking, a reasonable officer could determine that Coleman was committing a parking violation. See
C.
Alternatively, we would reach the same conclusion even if we were to consider Coleman‘s crossbow possession, whether in isolation or as part of the totality of
In this alternative analysis, the legality of Coleman‘s crossbow possession under the Virginia statute is largely tangential to the question of whether Deputy Johnson‘s suspicion was reasonable. In fact, as noted below, we assume arguendo that his possession of the crossbow was not unlawful. So we turn to the facts in Terry as instructive on this point to demonstrate how even seemingly innocent conduct can sometimes support reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. There, an officer observed two men taking turns to look[] in a store window, then walk[] on a short distance, turn[] around and walk[] back..., pausing once again to look in the same store window. Terry, 392 U.S. at 6. The men conferred with each other, as well as briefly with a third man, and then walked away together after about 10 to 12 minutes of pacing, peering and conferring. Id.
The officer testified that after observing their elaborately casual and oft-repeated reconnaissance of the store window . . ., he suspected the two men of casing a job, a stick-up,’ and that he considered it his duty as a police officer to investigate further. Id. He was, however, concerned that they may have had a firearm. Id. He followed the pair until they reunited with the third man and then intervened. Id. at 6. At this point [the officer‘s] knowledge was confined to what he had observed. He was not acquainted with any of the three men by name or by sight, and he had received no information concerning them from any other source. Id. at 7. The officer asked for their names and, after the men mumbled something in response, he grabbed one (Terry) and patted down the outside of his clothing, which revealed a firearm. Id. The officer patted down the other two men and discovered a second firearm on one of them. Id.
In subsequent criminal proceedings for unlawfully carrying concealed weapons, Terry and his codefendant moved to suppress the firearms. Id. at 7-8. The state trial court denied the motion, the Ohio Court of Appeals affirmed, and the Supreme Court of Ohio dismissed the appeal. Id. at 8. On writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court affirmed. Id. The Court explained that the officer‘s detention of the men was justified under the circumstances.
[The officer] had observed Terry, Chilton, and [the third man] go Through [sic] a series of acts, each of them perhaps innocent in itself, but which taken together warranted further investigation. There is nothing unusual in two men standing together on a street corner, perhaps waiting for someone. Nor is there anything suspicious about people in such circumstances strolling up and down the street, singly or in pairs. Store windows, moreover, are made to be looked in. But the story is quite different where, as here, two men hover about a street corner for an extended period of time, at the end of which it becomes apparent that they are not waiting for anyone or anything; where these men pace alternately along an identical route, pausing to stare in the same store window roughly 24 times; where each completion of this route is followed immediately by a conference between the two men on the corner; where they are joined in one of these conferences by a third man who leaves swiftly; and where the two men finally follow the third and
rejoin him a couple of blocks away. It would have been poor police work indeed for an officer of 30 years’ experience in the detection of thievery from stores in this same neighborhood to have failed to investigate this behavior further.
Applying the same approach here, just as the Terry defendants’ pacing, peering and conferring, id. at 6, near a storefront was hardly criminal in and of itself, we assume for the purposes of our alternative analysis that neither Coleman‘s crossbow possession nor any of the other individual circumstances was necessarily illegal. Here, as in Terry, the underlying behavior does not have to be illegal for us to conclude that Deputy Johnson had reasonable suspicion to stop Coleman. See United States v. Slocumb, 804 F.3d 677, 682 (4th Cir. 2015) (recognizing that factors susceptible to innocent explanation’ individually may suffice[] to form a particularized and objective basis’ when taken together (quoting United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 277 (2002) (alteration in original))). Rather, we concern ourselves with determining whether criminal activity was afoot based on those innocent underlying facts.4 Foster, 824 F.3d at 94 (directing courts to combine all of the factors supporting reasonable suspicion to consider the totality of the circumstances—the whole picture. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted)).
To identify the criminal activity at issue here, we return to the facts, which illustrate that an officer in Deputy Johnson‘s position could reasonably suspect that Coleman presented a credible threat of physical harm to students, faculty, and/or staff at the school by possessing a dangerous weapon. In doing so, we incorporate the facts discussed above, but factor in Coleman‘s crossbow possession to our reasonable suspicion calculation, the totality of which led Deputy Johnson to initiate an investigative stop. These circumstances support a finding of reasonable suspicion.
We again note the suspicion that looms large as to unknown individuals and attendant,
[I]s there anybody in this room who didn‘t applaud the officer for exactly what he did at a public school to check out . . . what was going on with some person, some adult sleeping in a car with a crossbow as . . . people [were] arriving at school. . . [I]f something terrible, in fact, had happened and the officer told the newspapers, well, I had all that information, but . . . there was nothing I could do. . . . When [Coleman] drove away, I just had to let him go. Wouldn‘t we all be aghast?
J.A. 71.
In short, we conclude that Deputy Johnson took appropriate measures to protect the student, faculty, and staff at the school by investigating Coleman‘s crossbow possession. That factor served to increase the unusual and alarming nature of Coleman‘s presence in the school parking lot, and therefore contributed to Deputy Johnson‘s reasonable suspicion that some criminal activity could be afoot. Walker, 3 F.4th at 685-86 (concluding that reasonable suspicion for an investigatory stop existed where a 911 call alerted an officer to the defendant, who was dressed in quasi-military clothing and walking in the general direction of a school while in possession of an AR-15-style assault rifle the week after a mass school shooting); United States v. Aguilera, 287 F. Supp. 2d 1204, 1206-07, 1210 (E.D. Cal. 2003) (finding reasonable suspicion where, following a parent‘s report to school administrators that she observed an unknown man on the school‘s campus with a firearm hidden under his shirt, school administrators, security monitors, and an officer conducted an investigative stop and subsequently discovered a shotgun); see also Terry, 392 U.S. at 15 (remarking that the Fourth Amendment should not be utilized in a rigid and unthinking manner that would exact a high toll in human injury and frustration of efforts to prevent crime). In doing so, we invoke Aguilera‘s apt appraisal of public officials’ responsibility to protect schoolchildren using their discretion and good sense:
[S]chool officials, when faced with the credible threat of [weapon] violence, must have flexibility to respond in the manner most appropriate to protect the lives of students. Indeed, would any reasonable parent . . . send her child to [school] if a suspected armed non-student could not be disarmed by school administrators? It simply defies common sense to tie the[ir] hands . . . when they reasonably suspect a non-student visitor, armed with a “weapon,” threatens the lives and safety of students.
Accordingly, based on our alternative analysis, we conclude that Deputy Johnson
III.
For the reasons discussed above, the judgment of the district court is
AFFIRMED.