Opinion
November 30, 1987
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Linakis, J.).
Ordered that the judgments are affirmed.
The defendant contends that the police lacked the requisite legal cause to initially detain him. He further asserts that the hearing court erred in denying his motion to suppress prospective identification testimony as the "fruits of the poisonous tree".
Testimony elicited at the suppression hearing established that the defendant, who had been in the midst of an argument with another individual on a public street, attracted the attention of the police because his appearance matched the description of a suspect who had committed a robbery earlier that day. In response to gestures by the police, the defendant voluntarily approached the officer's vehicle and leaned across the hood of the automobile. One of the officer's thereupon noticed a bulge in the defendant's jacket pocket which appeared to be a weapon. This observation prompted the officer to exit his vehicle and conduct a limited pat-down search of the pocket area. The search resulted in the retrieval of a handgun from the defendant's jacket pocket. He was consequently arrested and was thereafter identified by witnesses as the perpetrator of two separate and unrelated robberies.
Contrary to the defendant's contentions, we find that his initial detention was supported by reasonable suspicion founded upon articulable facts, that is, the officer's testimony that the defendant's physical appearance resembled a description of the suspect in a robbery that recently had been committed. Moreover, once the officer observed a bulge in the defendant's pocket, he was clearly justified in conducting a limited pat-down search in the area of the bulge to ascertain whether the defendant was, in fact, armed with a weapon (see, People v. Spivey, 46 N.Y.2d 1014; People v. Rivera, 14 N.Y.2d 441; People v. Wright, 100 A.D.2d 523). Probable cause to arrest the defendant existed upon the discovery of a firearm in his jacket pocket. The arrest of the defendant was, in all respects, proper and his motion to suppress the weapon was properly denied. Therefore, the defendant's assertion that the identifications by prospective witnesses should have been suppressed as the "fruit of the poisonous tree" is without merit. Brown, J.P., Lawrence, Weinstein and Eiber, JJ., concur.