Commonwealth v. Washington

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that no additional suspicion arises from flight unless the individual is knowingly running from police
• concluding that “nervous, evasive behavior and headlong flight all provoke suspicion of criminal behavior in the context of response to police presence”
• holding that where the defendant was not knowingly running from the police, “there [was] no nexus between running and reasonable suspicion of criminal activity”
• holding the appellant’s unprovoked flight, without more, was - 16 - J-S02017-23 insufficient to give rise to reasonable suspicion justifying an investigatory stop
• stating that “the suspect must know he is running from law enforcement before a reasonable suspicion can attach.”
• recognizing the common elements between, inter alia, -8- J-S13019-23 Wardlow, Jefferson and D.M. II, are that “the incident took place in a high crime area and the suspect fled upon being confronted by the police or recognizing police presence in the immediate area.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

4 cases in this archive cite this case.

• Commonwealth v. McCoy
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2017-01-27· cited 48×
• Com. v. Barnes, Q.
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2023-05-26· cited 30×
• Commonwealth v. Foster, J., Aplt.
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 2026-05-18
• Commonwealth v. Foster, J., Aplt.
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 2026-05-19

Cites

6 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

• Terry v. Ohio
  Supreme Court· 1968-06-10· cited 37,942×
• Illinois v. Wardlow
  Supreme Court· 2000-01-19· cited 4,162×
• Commonwealth v. Jones
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 2010-02-16· cited 433×
• In the Interest of D.M.
  Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 2001-10-18· cited 270×
• Commonwealth v. Brown
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2006-07-17· cited 40×
• Commonwealth v. Jefferson
  Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 2004-06-22· cited 30×