PEOPLE v. WARD

The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. When defendant gave highly suspicious answers to an officer's lawful request for information about a loud crashing noise in the immediate vicinity, including answers that were inconsistent with the officer's own observations, the encounter escalated to the point where the officer had a founded suspicion that criminality was afoot, which justified the officer in asking defendant whether he had any weapons on him ( see People v. De Bour, 40 NY2d 210, 223; People v. McPherson, 286 AD2d 616, lv denied 97 NY2d 685).

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.