Opinion
July 1, 1991
Appeal from the County Court, Nassau County (Orenstein, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
We reject the defendant's contention that he was illegally approached on the street by the police. "The minimal intrusion of approaching to request information is permissible when there is some objective credible reason for that interference not necessarily indicative of criminality" (People v De Bour, 40 N.Y.2d 210, 223; see, People v Hall, 152 A.D.2d 905, affd 75 N.Y.2d 826). The defendant matched the description of a burglary suspect the police sought and was in the area where the suspect was said to have been. Under the circumstances, the police, believing the defendant to be the suspect, were entitled to call out the suspect's name and approach the defendant (see, People v Leung, 68 N.Y.2d 734; People v Carrasquillo, 54 N.Y.2d 248). When the defendant responded by dropping plastic bags appearing to contain cocaine, there was probable cause to effect his arrest (see, People v Leung, supra; People v Elliot, 162 A.D.2d 609; People v Hall, supra).
The defendant's sentence was not excessive (see, People v Suitte, 90 A.D.2d 80). Mangano, P.J., Kooper, Rosenblatt and O'Brien, JJ., concur.