Police saw a man carrying a concealed handgun outside a house in a high-crime area.
They stopped him at gunpoint, took the weapon, ran his record… and discovered he was a felon.
That still wasn’t enough to save the stop.
The Eleventh Circuit held that officers lacked reasonable suspicion before they detained him.
Under the Florida law in effect at the time, concealed carry was presumptively lawful, so simply seeing the gun did not establish criminal activity.
The court vacated his conviction and reversed the denial of his suppression motion.
For defense lawyers, the takeaway is simple:
Legal conduct plus a “high-crime area” doesn’t automatically become reasonable suspicion.
-The Criminal Defense Brief