People v. Randall

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Rena K. Uvil-ler, J., at suppression hearing; Laura A. Ward, J., at plea and sentencing), rendered January 14, 2013, convicting defendant of criminal possession of a weapon in .the third degree and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2 to 4 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant’s suppression motion. We conclude that an officer’s removal of a knife from defendant’s pocket was within the scope of lawful police conduct under the principle articulated in People v Miranda ( 19 NY3d 912 [2012]). When the officer saw defendant riding a bicycle unsafely and in violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1231, the officer was entitled to stop defendant and order him off the bicycle, regardless of whether the officer’s initial intent was to give defendant an admonition instead of a ticket, and whether the officer also wished to investigate a suspicious handle protruding from defendant’s pocket (see People v Edwards, 14 NY3d 741 , 742 [2010]; People v Robinson, 97 NY2d 341 , 349 [2001]). The officer had a reasonable basis for asking defendant whether the object in his pocket was a knife, especially since, before asking, the officer noticed that the handle appeared to be that of a knife, and also recognized several indicia that defendant was a gang member (see People v O’Donnell, 122 AD3d 475 [1st Dept 2014], lv denied 24 NY3d 1122 [2015]; People v Terrance, 101 AD3d 624 [1st Dept 2012], lv denied 20 NY3d 1065 [2013]). When defendant acknowledged that the object

Concur — Tom, J.P., Sweeny, Andrias, Webber and Gesmer, JJ.