Antwan Lavan Fowler v. State of Arkansas

Summary

The court held that officers lawfully initiated a consensual encounter with Fowler and acquired reasonable suspicion to pursue and briefly stop him after he gave an unintelligible response and fled from a suspicious location. The officers nevertheless converted that investigative stop into an unlawful seizure by arresting Fowler immediately for fleeing without conducting the brief investigation authorized by the circumstances or obtaining probable cause for the arrest. The court reversed and remanded with instructions to suppress the evidence and statements obtained as a result. Justice Brown, dissenting, would have upheld the arrest as supported by probable cause for fleeing or obstruction and would not have suppressed the evidence.