Opinion
December 8, 1994
Appeal from the Family Court, Bronx County (Marjory Fields, J.).
Family Court properly denied respondent's motion to suppress the weapon recovered from him prior to his arrest. Although the radio run of 10 males with guns at the apartment building did not alone constitute reasonable suspicion, the reliability of that information was enhanced when, within a minute of the transmission, the police arrived at the building, a known drug and gun location, and observed approximately 10 males in the lobby, legitimizing the officer's minimal intrusion of requesting that the men take their hands out of their pockets (see, People v Grant, 184 A.D.2d 242, lv denied 80 N.Y.2d 904). When respondent refused to take his hands out of his pockets and actively resisted the officer's attempts to place his hands on the wall, the police fearing for their own safety, were justified in patting respondent's waistband and retrieving the loaded weapon found there. "We can hardly ignore what is apparent to probably every police officer, that a handgun is often carried in the waistband" (People v Montague, 175 A.D.2d 54, 55).
Concur — Ellerin, J.P., Kupferman, Williams and Tom, JJ.