People v. Reyes

This case provides yet another variation on a familiar and crucial Fourth Amendment theme: the proper scope of a police officer’s protective weapons frisk upon a person suspected of committing a criminal act. According to the suppression hearing testimony of Police Officer Matthew Rosenthal, he was on foot patrol in the East Village of Manhattan on the evening of January 2, 1993, when a passing stranger, who declined to be identified, informed him that a black male, of certain height *64and dress, was standing in front of a building half a block away armed with a gun. Defendant Rafael Reyes was…