District of Columbia v. R.W. · ¶9

On the facts of this case, Officer Vanterpool clearly had reasonable suspicion to stop R. W. Already on alert from the late-night dispatch call about a suspicious vehicle, the officer observed every person in R. W.'s car respond strangely to an approaching police car. Two people took off running. We have observed that “unprovoked fight upon noticing the police . . . . is certainly suggestive” of wrongdoing. Id., at 124. The driver, R. W., did not run from the car, but his companions' fight cast his presence in a suspicious light. After all, we have observed that “ `a car passenger . . . will often be engaged in a common enterprise with the driver, and have the same interest in concealing the fruits or the evidence of their wrongdoing.' ” Maryland v. Pringle, 540 U. S. 366, 373 (2003) (quoting Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U. S. 295, 304–305 (1999)).

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