D E C I S I O N
WARREN,
C.J.:
I. THE
FACTS
Cleveland,
Ohio detective McFadden was on a downtown beat that he had been patrolling for
many years when he observed two strangers (Terry and another man, Chilton) at a
street corner. He saw them proceed alternately back and forth along an
identical route, pausing to stare in the same store window, which they did for
a total of about 24 times. Each completion of the route was followed by a
conference between the two on a corner, at one of which they were joined by a
third man (Katz) who thereafter left swiftly.
Suspecting the
two men of ‘casing a job, a stick-up’, the officer followed them and saw them
rejoin the third man a couple of blocks away in front of a store. The officer
approached the three, identified himself as a policeman, and asked their names.
The men mumbled something, whereupon McFadden spun Terry around, patted down
his outside clothing, and felt in his overcoat pocket – but was unable to
remove – a pistol. He removed Terry’s overcoat, took out a revolver, and
ordered the three to face the wall with their hands raised. He patted down the
outer clothing of Chilton and Katz and seized a revolver from Chilton’s outside
overcoat pocket. He did not put his hands under the outer garments of Katz
(since he discovered nothing in his pat-down which might have been a weapon),
or under Terry’s or Chilton’s outer garments until he felt the guns.
