Opinion
September 17, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Harold Silverman, J., at hearing; Robert Straus, J., at jury trial and sentencing).
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. The observation by anti-crime unit officers of a livery cab containing the unusual seating arrangement of three men in the front and two men in the back, coupled with the officer's observation of a struggle in the front seat of the cab, during which the man seated in the middle, with his hat pulled down over his face, was attempting to fight off one of the other men, justified the officers' reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed or was about to be committed ( People v. Ferguson, 249 A.D.2d 168; People v. Brantley, 235 A.D.2d 546; People v. Heron, 185 A.D.2d 859, lv denied 80 N.Y.2d 1027). Based upon these observations, the stop of the cab was proper.
Concur — Rosenberger, J. P., Ellerin, Nardelli and Williams, JJ.