OPINION
Defendant-Appellant Tyransee Harris appeals his conviction and sentence for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. On appeal, Harris argues that: (1) the district court improperly denied his motion to suppress the physical evidence found on his person; (2) the district court erred in denying his Batson challenge during jury selection; (3) the district court erred in allowing a police officer to offer expert testimony at trial; and (4) there was insufficient evidence presented at trial to allow the jury to find that Harris intended to distribute the crack cocaine in his possession. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court’s decision in all respects save the Batson issue. Because we find that the district court engaged in an improper analysis in concluding that the government did not purposefully discriminate during jury selection, we remand the case to the district court for a proper determination.
I. Background
On August 6, 1997, Tyransee Harris was charged in a two count indictment in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Cоunt One charged him with knowingly possessing with intent to distribute approximately 5.9 grams of crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). Count Two charged him with knowingly possessing a firearm after having been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year in violation of 18 U.S.S. § 922(g)(1). Following a two day jury trial, Harris was found guilty on both counts and sentenced to 137 months imprisonment on Count One and 120 months imprisonment on Count Two, with the sentences to run concurrently and to be followed by eight years of supervised release.
II. Facts
On September 1, 1996, Officer Brett Snavely of the Mansfield, Ohio Police Department was working the 2-10 p.m. shift in his assigned neighborhood. In response to citizen complaints about drug trafficking *583 in the area and a purported crack house at 133 Arthur Avenue, Officer Snavely set up surveillance on Arthur Avenue in his marked police cruiser just after dark. At approximately 8:30 p.m., Officer Snavely observed Harris walking back and forth along Arthur Avenue. Snavely testified that Harris seemed to be walking erratically, causing Snavely to suspect that he might be under the influence of alcohol. Snavely also testified that, at one point, Harris bent down and appeared to remove something from his shoe or sock, and then walked along appearing to cup something in his hand. Snavely also stated that Harris had one pant leg rolled up, and that this is a common street sign that a person is holding or dealing drugs. On the basis of these observations, Officer Snavely decided to stop Harris and called for backup. Snavely then pulled his police cruiser out of the shadows and approached Harris. When Harris saw the pоlice car approach, he walked up onto the front porch of 104 Arthur Avenue. Officer Snavely exited his vehicle and approached Harris. As Snavely walked around his car, Harris came part of the way down the steps towards him. Snavely asked Harris what he was doing, and Harris responded that he was there to see his cousin. When Snavely asked for the name of the cousin, Harris responded, “My name is Tyransee Harris.” Snavely repeated that he wanted the name of Harris’s cousin, but Harris did not respond. Snavely observed no еvidence of any alcohol-induced impairment. Officer Snavely testified that during this exchange, Harris’s hands were up against the front of his body, which made him uneasy because he feared Harris might have a weapon. When Officer Snavely asked Harris to move his hands away from his body Harris refused, further increasing Snavely’s anxiety. He told Harris that he was going to pat him down for weapons, and Harris responded that he would not allow him to do so. Officer Snavely then grabbed Harris and a physical struggle ensued until the backup unit arrivéd. After Harris was handcuffed, he indiсated toward the front of his pants and said, “It’s right here.” The officers discovered an unloaded .25 caliber pistol in a holster in the front of his pants. Harris also directed the officers to his right front pocket where they found two small plastic bags containing crack cocaine. The first bag contained approximately twenty individually wrapped pieces of crack cocaine totaling 3.056 grams. The second bag contained one large rock with one small piece broken off totaling 2.8 grams.
At jury selection, the government used two peremptory challenges to strike two African-Americans from the venire panel. Defense counsel objected to the strikes on the basis of Batson v. Kentucky, arguing that the prosecution could not exercise its peremptory challenges to purposely strike a person from the venire because of his race. The trial court, in denying Harris’s Batson challenge, noted that one African-American had been seated on the jury, and that the two venire members who had allegedly been struck on the basis of their race would оnly have been alternate jurors even if they had been retained.
At trial, Officer Snavely testified as to his general experience in law enforcement and specifically as to his extensive background in narcotics investigations. He also testified, over defense objection, as to the methods of packaging and distributing crack cocaine and other methods and operations of street level drug dealers. His testimony included, inter alia, the supposition that a rolled up pant leg often serves as a signal that a person has drugs for sale, that shoes and socks are common places to hide drugs, and that large pieces of crack are often broken into smaller pieces and wrapped individually for sale.
III. Analysis
1. Terry Stop
In his first assignment of error, Harris argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the physical evidence found on his person. He
*584
claims that the search and seizure executed by Officer Snavely were violative of his Fourth Amendment rights and that the fruits of the search should therefore have been suppressed. This court reviews thе district court’s findings of fact for clear error and its conclusions of law de novo. The ultimate decision by the district court as to whether the facts of the case establish a Fourth Amendment violation is reviewed de novo.
See, e.g., United States v. Avery,
In
Terry v. Ohio,
Harris’s primary argument with respect to the search and seizure issue is that all of his actions were innocent in themselves and were insufficient to give rise to a reasonable inference of criminal activity. Officer Snavely observed Harris walking erratically back and forth in a high crime area on a street where there had been reports of drug dealing and he was in the vicinity of a reported crack house. He allegedly had one of his pаnt legs rolled up, which indicated from Officer Snavel/s experience that Harris may have had drugs for sale. Harris was seen to stoop and remove something from his shoe or sock and walk along cupping his hands as though he were counting something.
Harris presents several plausibly innocent explanations for the conduct observed by Officer Snavely. It is certainly conceivable that Harris’s walking back and forth on Arthur Avenue, his removal of an item from his shoe or sock, and his non-responsive answers to Officer Snavely’s questions could have had entirely unsinister motives. But when viewed in the aggregate, we agree with the district court that Officer Snavely reasonably concluded that criminal activity may have been afoot. The Supreme Court addressed this issue in
United States v. Sokolow,
In support of his claim that Officer Snavely lacked the reasonable suspicion necessary for an investigatory stop, Harris cites
Brown v. Texas,
Broim is easily distinguishable from the case before us. In Brown, the officers were unable to point to any facts supporting their conclusion that the situation in the alley “looked suspicious.” Brown presents us with a classic example qf the “unparticularized suspicion or hunch” warned against in Terry. Brown presents a stark contrast to the instant case, where Officer Snavely testified that his suspicions were aroused by Harris’s actions and mannerisms, as well as the mysterious items Harris removed from his shoe or sock which he appeared to be counting as he walked along.
The question of what constitutes reasonable suspicion is heavily dependent on the facts of each case and does not lend itself to precise categorizations within the case law. In addition to
Broum,
there are numerous cases in which courts have found a lack of reasonable suspicion based on the apparent lack of criminal activity afoot. In
United States v. Sprinkle,
We find the circumstances of this case more analogous to Lender and Rodriguez because in each of those cases, as in the case before us, the officers observed an individual in possession of an object which a police officer, rationally drawing upon inferences from the facts and circumstances before him, could reasonably have believed to be illegal drugs.
Harris also argues that Officer Snavely went beyond the permissible bounds of the investigatory stop because Snavely stopped him, in part, because he believed Harris might be intoxicated. “[T]he scope of activities pеrmitted during an investigative stop is determined by the circumstances that initially justified the stop.”
United States v. Obasa,
2. Batson Challenge
In his next assignment of error, Harris claims that the district court erred in denying his
Batson
challenge. Harris argues that the prosecutor purposefully excluded African-Americans from the jury in his trial in violation of his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is well settled that a state denies a defendant equal protection of the laws when he is tried before a jury from which members of his race have been purposefully excluded.
Strauder v. West Virginia,
That he is a member of a cognizable racial group ... that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges to remove from the venire members of the defendant’s race ... [and] that these facts and any other relevant circumstances raise an inference that the prosecutor used that practice to exclude the venire men from the petit jury on account of their race.
United States v. Hill,
The record in the instant case reveals that there was оne African-American on the jury which convicted Harris. This juror was Number 25 on the venire panel and was the first African-American available on the venire panel. As it turns out, this venireman was the final panel member seated on the petit jury and was designated Juror Number 12. After the selection of the twelve petit jurors, the juror selection process continued so that the alternate jurors could be selected, and it is during this process that Harris claims the discrimination occurred.
Venire panelists Numbers 26 and 27, who would have been alternatе jurors Numbers 1 and 2, were both struck by the prosecutor. The prosecutor claimed that he eliminated venire member No. 26, an African-American woman, because she was unmarried and had no children. He further claimed that her demeanor seemed to indicate she did not want to be there. Venire member No. 27, an African-American male, was also struck by the prosecutor, allegedly because he had no children and had been a bus driver with the local transit authority. The prosecutor explained that there had recently been problems between local law enforcement officials and transit authority drivers, and he feared that Venire member No. 27 *587 may have harbored feelings of animosity towards law enforcement officials.
When the prosecutor struck the two African-American venire panelists, defense counsel objected under
Batson.
Before the district court ruled as to whether Harris had established a prima facie case, the prosecutor offered his race-neutral reason for his use of the strikes. The district court then made a finding that the prosecutor had not engaged in intentional discrimination. This sequence of events renders the initial question of whether defendant established a prima facie case moot.
See Hernandez v. New York,
It is the district court’s execution of the third step of the Batson analysis which we must examine closely. The district court, in its determination that the prosecutor had not engaged in unlawful discrimination, noted:
All right. The court notes that the first African-American panel member was No. 25, and No. 25 is, in fact, seated on the jury as No. 12. The next two African-Americans struck by the government actually would have been alternates if they had not been struck аs jurors. So under the circumstances, the court will deny the Batson challenges. (Tr. at 67)
This finding by the district court is insufficient or mistaken in at least two respects. First, it is evident that the district court gave great weight to the fact that one African-American was in fact seated on the jury. We note that the presence of one African-American on the jury does not preclude a
Batson
challenge.
Jones v. Ryan,
The government, having the benefit of hindsight, argues that any error made by the district court in this respect must be deemed harmless, as none of the alternate jurors were ever called upon to deliberate in this case. The government’s position is without support.
This type of error involves a “structural error,” which is not subject to hаrmless error analysis.
See Arizona v. Fulminante,
In sum, the district court’s terse analysis of the Batson challenge lеaves us with little to review. It seems to have made no effort to weigh the credibility of the prosecutor’s asserted reasons for striking the panelists, relying instead on impermissible factors in reaching its conclusion. We therefore remand this issue to the district court for a proper determination.
3. Admission of Officer Snavely’s Expert Testimony
Harris next contends that the district court erred in admitting Officer Snavely’s expert opinion testimony as to the methods and operations of street level drug dealers. The question of admissibility of expert testimony is reviewed for an abuse of discrеtion.
General Electric Co. v. Joiner,
Harris argues that the amount of crack cocaine found on his person (approximately 5.9 grams) was for his own personal consumption, and that the government should not have been permitted to introduce that portion of Officer Snavely’s testimony which described the methods and operations of street level drug dealers. Harris claims that the district court did not properly determine the reliability of Officer Snavely’s expert opinion testimony and that the testimony should therefore not have been admitted.
In
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc.,
We find this case analogous to Thomas, where a police detective was permitted to testify as both a fact and an expert -witness. In response to Thomas’s argument that the detective’s testimony about the usual methods and operations of drug traffickers was unnecessary, a panel of this court wrote, “Courts have overwhelmingly found police officers’ expert testimony admissible where it will aid the jury’s understanding of an area, such as drug dealing, not within the experience of the average juror.” Id. at 682. We find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing Officer Snavely’s expert opinion testimony about the significance of Harris’s observed behavior.
4. Sufficiency of the Evidence
In his final assignment of error, Harris contends that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support a conviction for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine. In determining whether evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support a conviction for the crime charged, an appellate court looks to see “whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Jackson v. Virginia,
Harris concedes that the proof presented at trial was sufficient to show that he knowingly possessed crack cocaine, but he disputes whether the evidence was sufficient to prove that he had the intent to distribute it. He argues that the relatively small amount (approximately 5.9 grams) of crack found in his possession could easily have been for his personal consumption rather than for distribution. The relatively small amount of cоcaine in his possession, however, is offset by several factors. First, it is undisputed that Harris was carrying two small bags containing cocaine, one of which held twenty small, individually wrapped pieces of crack. Second, the jury also heard evidence that Harris was apprehended while walking aimlessly back and forth in an area known for drug distribution, allegedly with one pant leg rolled up, while carrying a pistol. And while we are mindful of the possibilities that the crack could have been packaged that way when Harris bought it and that he cоuld have just been going for a walk or “killing time” when he was apprehended, we are convinced that a rational jury could have reasonably found that Harris intended to distribute the crack cocaine in his possession. Consequently, Defendant’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence fails.
IV. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the district court in every respect except the Batson analysis. We REMAND the case to the district court for a proper determination of whether the government engaged in purposeful discriminatiоn by striking two African-Americans from the venire panel.
Notes
. Our decision in
United States v. Tucker,
