Summary
finding a search to be justified where police found a bullet hole in a landlord's ceiling after responding “immediately to a call for help” from the landlord
Summary of this case from United States v. TimmannOpinion
June 15, 1992
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Miller, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
Following a suppression hearing the Supreme Court denied that branch of the defendant's omnibus motion which was to suppress a gun, illegal drugs, and drug paraphernalia seized after a warrantless entry into the defendant's apartment. We agree with the determination of the Supreme Court that the exigencies of the situation justified the warrantless entry by the police into the apartment. The evidence at the hearing established that the police responded immediately to a call for help from the defendant's landlord. Upon arriving at the scene the police observed a gunshot hole in the landlord's ceiling and found a bullet on the floor directly underneath the hole. The police then knocked on the door of the defendant's apartment, which was directly above the landlord's apartment, and there was no response. The landlord then let the officers in the apartment with her key, and, upon entering the defendant's bedroom, the police saw the defendant sitting on a bed with a gun next to him. When the officers secured the gun and the defendant they observed an opened canvas bag which contained cocaine and empty vials. Under these circumstances, the recovery of the gun, illegal drugs, and empty vials, which were in plain view, was a lawful result of the entry into the apartment and was dictated by the exigencies of the situation (see, People v. Gordon, 110 A.D.2d 778, 780). Sullivan, J.P., Harwood, Balletta and Eiber, JJ., concur.