People v. Superior Court (Price)

The People, pursuant to Penal Code section 1538.5, subdivision (o), seek a writ of mandate directing respondent superior court to vacate an order suppressing statements made by real party and photographs taken of him while he was in police custody. We issued an alternative writ and set the matter for hearing. We have concluded that the People are entitled to the writ they seek.

Real party is charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder. The offenses were committed in the course of a street gang drive-by shooting. It is in that context that we must assess the reasonableness of the police conduct which led to the evidence which respondent court suppressed.

The evidence adduced at the hearing on the motion to suppress was as follows: The shooting occurred at about 4:10 p.m. at 112th and Broadway. Witnesses at the scene (who were amongst those shot at, but not hit) described the assailants as members of the Miller Gangsters. Miller Gangsters is identified in the record as a “blood gang. ” “Blood gangs” are described as rivals of the various Crips gangs. The victims of the subject shooting were members of a Crips affiliate which was frequently at war…