United States v. Tiru-Plaza

TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant José Tiru-Plaza (“Tiru”) appeals from the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress the firearm discovered when a police officer pat-frisked him during a traffic stop.

After stopping a car — in which Tiru was a passenger — for a traffic infraction, officers from the Puerto Rico Police Department, evidently suspecting that the car might have been stolen, ordered the driver to exit the vehicle and open the hood to permit inspection of the vehicle identification number (the “VIN”) stamped on the engine block. When the driver complied, the…