Police were dispatched to a call of shots fired. When they arrived in the area, they saw nothing but pulled over the only car in the area.
Our client was the driver of that car. The police noticed one of the passenger windows had been broken and there was glass in the car. Assuming the occupants had somehow been involved in the shooting (rather than the victims), the occupants were removed, cuffed and seated on the curb as police searched the vehicle..
The police found nothing, so they removed the front dashboard panel and found a gun. The court found there was no threat to officers’ safety at the time of the search (occupants of car had been removed and cuffed), so the warrantless search was unlawful. All evidence was suppressed.