PEOPLE v. SELLARS (1998)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Jerome Hornblass, J., at Mapp hearing;  Harold Beeler, J., at plea and sentence), rendered November 9, 1994, convicting defendant of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a persistent violent felony offender, to a term of 7 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant's suppression motion was properly denied.   The police had reasonable suspicion to stop the car in which defendant was a passenger.   About an hour after the police had heard a report of shots fired and received information from an unidentified civilian informant during a face-to-face encounter that a man had been abducted at gunpoint by four male blacks driving a black, four-door Honda with tinted windows and star chrome wheel covers, the police observed a vehicle matching the description in the vicinity of the specified location.   Shortly thereafter, the vehicle twice circled the block, fled from the scene immediately after a man who was speaking to the occupants of the car observed the marked police car, and continued through a red light.   The totality of these circumstances justified pursuit by the police (see, People v. Green, 35 N.Y.2d 193, 360 N.Y.S.2d 243, 318 N.E.2d 464;  People v. Bruce, 78 A.D.2d 169, 434 N.Y.S.2d 338, lv. denied 52 N.Y.2d 1074, 438 N.Y.S.2d 1031, 420 N.E.2d 403).   We have considered defendant's remaining contentions and find them to be without merit.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.