United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

FILED May 17, 2021 No. 20-10757 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk

United States of America,

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Pizarro Thomas,

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas USDC No. 3:18-CR-428-1

Before Davis, Southwick, and Costa, Circuit Judges. Leslie H. Southwick, Circuit Judge: Pizarro Thomas appeals from his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He challenges the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence of a firearm discovered during a stop and frisk. This case requires us to analyze the reasonableness of officers’ suspicions as to a particular individual when the uncertainty is not whether a crime has occurred but who within a group committed it. We AFFIRM. Case: 20-10757 Document: 00515864245 Page: 2 Date Filed: 05/17/2021

No. 20-10757

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND On June 18, 2018, around 5:30 p.m., Officers Alan Hovis and Benito Garcia were patrolling the “Five Points” area of Dallas, an area known for pervasive crime involving drugs and violence. Earlier that day, the officers were informed that a vehicle stolen in an aggravated robbery had been identified in the area by an automatic license plate reader (“ALPR”). The officers were driving through the area in a marked patrol vehicle specifically for the purpose of locating the stolen vehicle, a silver Toyota Camry. The aggravated robbery occurred on June 8, ten days before these events. The record does not make clear whether the officers were aware that the crime happened ten days earlier, though they knew it had not occurred in the last few hours. Information about the date of the crime was available to the officers and included in the National Crime Information Center (“NCIC”) database that they accessed before making the stop. The record shows the robbery was committed by two black males. At the time, though, the officers did not have a description of the people involved in the crime, and there is no indication that they knew how many individuals had been involved. What they knew was the description of the vehicle, its license plate number, the location where it was spotted by the ALPR, and that it was stolen in an aggravated robbery involving a firearm. With that information, the officers drove to the apartment complex where the ALPR identified the stolen vehicle. As they drove through the complex, they saw the stolen vehicle backed into a covered parking spot near the entrance to one of the apartment buildings. They kept driving past the vehicle and, at that time, one of the officers confirmed via the NCIC database that the license plate matched that of the vehicle reported stolen. During that initial pass, the officers observed two people sitting inside the stolen vehicle, while another four people — including Thomas — were

2 Case: 20-10757 Document: 00515864245 Page: 3 Date Filed: 05/17/2021

No. 20-10757

standing in the immediate vicinity of and surrounding the