Commonwealth v. Raspberry , 93 Mass. App. Ct. 633 ( 2018 )


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    16-P-1636                                                 Appeals Court
    COMMONWEALTH    vs.   TAKII RASPBERRY.
    No. 16-P-1636.
    Suffolk.       April 12, 2018. - July 27, 2018.
    Present:    Rubin, Sacks, & Singh, JJ.
    Cellular Telephone. Practice, Criminal, Motion to
    suppress. Search and Seizure, Emergency, Motor vehicle,
    Probable cause. Probable Cause. Constitutional Law,
    Search and seizure, Probable cause.
    Complaint received and sworn to in the Roxbury Division of
    the Boston Municipal Court Department on April 15, 2015.
    Following transfer to the Central Division, pretrial
    motions to suppress evidence were heard by Catherine K. Byrne,
    J.
    An application for leave to prosecute an interlocutory
    appeal was allowed by Kimberly S. Budd, J., in the Supreme
    Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk, and the appeal was
    reported by her to the Appeals Court.
    Timothy St. Lawrence for the defendant.
    Cailin M. Campbell, Assistant District Attorney, for the
    Commonwealth.
    2
    SACKS, J.   Before us is the defendant's interlocutory
    appeal 1 from the denial of her motions to suppress evidence
    obtained by police through (1) warrantless real-time tracking of
    the defendant's whereabouts using cell site location information
    (CSLI) and (2) a warrantless search of her motor vehicle,
    leading to the discovery of a loaded firearm and a stun gun. 2    We
    affirm.
    Background.   We recite the relevant facts as found by the
    motion judge, supplemented where necessary by uncontroverted
    police testimony, which the judge expressly credited in full.
    See Commonwealth v. Isaiah I., 
    448 Mass. 334
    , 337 (2007), S.C.,
    
    450 Mass. 818
    (2008).   None of the judge's subsidiary findings
    is challenged on appeal.
    In April, 2015, as part of a joint investigation with
    Federal authorities, the Boston police were conducting a wiretap
    of the telephone line of one Mike Coke pursuant to a Federal
    1 A single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court allowed the
    defendant's motion to pursue an interlocutory appeal and ordered
    it to be heard in this court.
    2 The defendant is charged with unlicensed operation of a
    motor vehicle, G. L. c. 90, § 10; carrying a firearm without a
    license, G. L. c. 269, § 10(a); carrying a dangerous weapon (a
    stun gun), G. L. c. 260, § 10(b); carrying a loaded firearm
    without a license, G. L. c. 269, § 10(n); and possessing
    ammunition without a firearm identification card, G. L. c. 269,
    § 10(h)(1). As to the stun gun charge, see Ramirez v.
    Commonwealth, 
    479 Mass. 331
    (2018) (absolute prohibition of
    civilian possession of stun guns in G. L. c. 140, § 131J, is
    unconstitutional).
    3
    court order. 3   At approximately 4:30 P.M on April 14, 2015, an
    officer in the "wire room" was monitoring a call from Coke to an
    unidentified woman, and he heard her say:    "I'm about to go
    shoot up this nigga right now, I'm going to get the fucking gun,
    I'm sick of this bitch ass nigga yo.    He fucking took my fucking
    money and don't want to give it the fuck back.    I'm going to
    his, I'm going right there, right now.    Right fucking now, by my
    fucking self . . . ."    The judge, who listened to a recording of
    the call, found that she sounded "angry, upset, and emotional."
    The wire room officer found the call "alarming" in that the
    woman on the call "intended to use a firearm to shoot someone."
    He checked her telephone number in various databases and
    identified her as the defendant.
    The police then knew that the defendant was referring to
    Alvin Dorsey, with whom she had been in "some type of romantic
    relationship."    The judge found that "the police were reasonable
    in having grave concerns about the defendant imminently causing
    serious bodily harm."
    Within fifteen minutes of hearing the defendant's threat,
    the officer called AT&T to initiate an "exigent request."    He
    stated that the Boston police had reliable information that a
    person using an AT&T cellular telephone (cell phone) might have
    3 The defendant has not challenged any aspect of the
    wiretap.
    4
    a gun and might be about to harm another person.   He provided
    the defendant's cell phone number and asked AT&T to perform
    "emergency pings" and give the police real-time CSLI about the
    approximate location of the defendant's cell phone. 4   AT&T agreed
    to assist, and it began sending the results of the pings to a
    designated Boston police electronic mail (e-mail) address at
    approximately fifteen-minute intervals.   The officer mapped the
    location of each ping result as it was received and shared this
    information with officers in the field attempting to find the
    defendant.
    The first result, received at 5:06 P.M., showed the cell
    phone within a 1,880 meter radius of a cell site in Braintree.
    Subsequent results showed the cell phone to be moving toward
    Boston, leading police to believe that the defendant was on her
    way to locate Dorsey.   Specifically, a 5:37 P.M. result showed
    the cell phone somewhere in the Dorchester section of Boston,
    and a 5:53 P.M. result showed the cell phone in the Roxbury
    section of Boston, within a 652-meter radius of a cell site atop
    a food market.   In the meantime, police had learned that Dorsey
    "may have been" with a girl friend who lived at a particular
    address in a housing project near that market.   Results received
    4 See Commonwealth v. Fredericq, 
    93 Mass. App. Ct. 19
    , 27-28
    (2018) (describing real-time CSLI). See also Commonwealth v.
    Long, 
    476 Mass. 526
    , 530 n.3 (2017) (describing historical
    CSLI).
    5
    at 6:25 P.M. and 6:41 P.M. showed the cell phone in an area with
    a 487-meter radius that included that housing project.
    At 6:46 P.M., the officer in the wire room, still
    monitoring Coke's phone calls, listened to a second conversation
    between Coke and the defendant.   In this call, the defendant
    said, "I'm sitting right in front of her house," which the
    police knew referred to the house of Dorsey's girl friend.    The
    defendant further stated that she was going to "shoot him and
    his bitch in the face"; that she knew Dorsey was in the
    apartment because he had been texting her; that she was waiting
    for him; that if he did not come out, she would be back at 7:00
    A.M. in a motor vehicle that he would not recognize; and that
    she would jump out and "pistol whip" him.   She added that if
    Dorsey sent anyone to attack her, it would be a "firefight,"
    which the detective understood to mean a "shootout."
    At this time, a Boston police sergeant, who had been kept
    informed of the defendant's threats and suspected location, was
    in a motor vehicle near the market and the housing project.     At
    approximately 6:50 P.M., the sergeant turned onto the street
    where Dorsey's girl friend lived and observed a woman sitting in
    a motor vehicle parked about 100 yards away from, and with a
    clear line of sight to, the girl friend's residence.   The woman
    was talking on a cell phone.   The sergeant knew that the
    defendant was on the phone with Coke at the time.
    6
    The sergeant called in the motor vehicle's license plate
    number and learned that the vehicle was registered to the
    defendant.   The sergeant then contacted a Boston police
    detective who, along with two other officers, was patrolling the
    area in an unmarked cruiser.    The sergeant described the
    defendant, her vehicle, and its plate number and location;
    warned the detective that the defendant likely had a firearm and
    was threatening to shoot someone; and asked the detective to
    stop the defendant's vehicle.
    The three officers stopped and approached the defendant's
    motor vehicle on foot.   The detective then asked her for her
    license and registration.   When she said she did not have a
    license, she was ordered out of the vehicle and arrested for
    operating without a license.    One officer led her to the rear of
    the vehicle, while the others searched the vehicle.    They found
    a stun gun in the defendant's purse in the passenger compartment
    and a loaded gun in the trunk.
    The defendant filed separate motions to suppress the fruits
    of (1) the warrantless CSLI search of her location and (2) the
    warrantless search of her motor vehicle.    The judge ruled that
    the CSLI search was justified under the emergency aid exception
    to the warrant requirement, because the police had a "good
    faith, reasonable belief that there was a serious and imminent
    threat to human life."   The judge further ruled that the search
    7
    of the vehicle was justified under the automobile exception,
    where the police had probable cause to believe that the vehicle
    contained a loaded firearm that the defendant intended to use.
    Discussion.    In reviewing a ruling on a motion to suppress,
    we accept the judge's subsidiary findings unless clearly
    erroneous, see Commonwealth v. White, 
    374 Mass. 132
    , 137 (1977),
    aff'd, 
    439 U.S. 280
    (1978), and make an "independent
    determination on the correctness of the judge's 'application of
    constitutional principles to the facts as found.'"      Commonwealth
    v. Haas, 
    373 Mass. 545
    , 550 (1977), quoting from Brewer
    v. Williams, 
    430 U.S. 387
    , 403 (1977).
    1.     CSLI search.   The parties and the judge proceeded on
    the assumption that the police use of the CSLI voluntarily
    provided by AT&T, in order to track the defendant's location in
    real time for two hours, was a search, subject to the warrant
    requirement of art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of
    Rights. 5   Compare Commonwealth v. Augustine, 
    467 Mass. 230
    , 255
    (2014), S.C., 
    472 Mass. 448
    (2015) ("[T]he government-compelled
    production of the defendant's [historical] CSLI records
    5 After this case was argued, the United States Supreme
    Court decided that "accessing seven days of [historical] CSLI
    constitutes a . . . search" under the Fourth Amendment to the
    United States Constitution but declined to determine whether
    accessing such CSLI for a more limited period might not be a
    search. Carpenter v. United States, 
    138 S. Ct. 2206
    , 2217 n.3
    (2018).
    8
    [covering two weeks] by Sprint constituted a search in the
    constitutional sense to which the warrant requirement of art. 14
    applied"); Commonwealth v. Fredericq, 
    93 Mass. App. Ct. 19
    , 27-
    28 (2018) (government-compelled creation and production of real-
    time CSLI for more than six days was subject to art. 14 warrant
    requirement).   Without deciding the question, we proceed on the
    same assumption. 6   And, as neither the Supreme Judicial Court nor
    this court has previously determined whether an emergency might
    justify a warrantless CSLI search, we begin by reviewing
    emergency search cases from other contexts.
    a.   The emergency aid exception.   In the context of a
    search of a home, where constitutional protection against
    unreasonable searches is at its zenith, 7 the courts have
    recognized an "emergency aid" exception to the warrant and
    6 The judge made two additional rulings, neither of which
    the defendant challenges on appeal, and on which we therefore
    express no opinion: (1) that AT&T's provision of the CSLI was
    authorized by language in the Federal Stored Communications Act,
    18 U.S.C. § 2702(c)(4) (2012), addressing "an emergency
    involving danger of death or serious physical injury"; and (2)
    that, because of the emergency circumstances, the police did not
    violate G. L. c. 271, § 17B, as amended by St. 2008, c. 205,
    § 3, in obtaining the CSLI without an administrative subpoena.
    See Commonwealth v. Chamberlin, 
    473 Mass. 653
    , 663 (2016)
    (reserving question whether § 17B, as amended, "precludes the
    government from asking a service provider to turn over customer
    records voluntarily").
    7 See Collins v. Virginia, 
    138 S. Ct. 1663
    , 1670 (2018);
    Selectmen of Framingham v. Municipal Ct. of Boston, 
    373 Mass. 783
    , 785 (1977); Commonwealth v. Swanson, 
    56 Mass. App. Ct. 459
    ,
    462 (2002).
    9
    probable cause requirements of the Federal and State
    constitutions. 8   See Commonwealth v. Snell, 
    428 Mass. 766
    , 774-
    775, 776 n.7, cert. denied, 
    527 U.S. 1010
    (1999); Commonwealth
    v. Duncan, 
    467 Mass. 746
    , 749-750, cert. denied, 
    135 S. Ct. 224
    (2014); Commonwealth v. Cantelli, 
    83 Mass. App. Ct. 156
    , 165
    (2013).   "This exception 'permits the police to enter a home
    without a warrant when they have an objectively reasonable basis
    to believe that there may be someone inside who is injured or in
    imminent danger of physical harm.'"    
    Duncan, 467 Mass. at 749
    -
    750, quoting from Commonwealth v. Peters, 
    453 Mass. 818
    , 819
    (2009).   "The need to protect or preserve life or avoid serious
    injury is justification for what would be otherwise illegal
    absent an exigency or emergency." 9   
    Snell, 428 Mass. at 774
    ,
    quoting from Commonwealth v. Bates, 
    28 Mass. App. Ct. 217
    , 219
    (1990).   See Brigham City v. Stuart, 
    547 U.S. 398
    , 403 (2006).
    8 The emergency aid exception, which requires no probable
    cause, is thus distinct from the "exigent circumstances"
    exception, which permits a warrantless search where probable
    cause exists, but circumstances such as the imminent loss of
    evidence make obtaining a warrant impracticable. See
    Commonwealth v. Washington, 
    449 Mass. 476
    , 480 (2007); 
    Duncan, 467 Mass. at 750
    .
    9 As Duncan indicates, the emergency aid exception may be
    based on the need to find and assist a person who has already
    been harmed, the need to prevent future harm, or both. In the
    context of prevention of future harm, the label "pure emergency"
    has sometimes been applied. See 
    Duncan, 467 Mass. at 749
    ;
    
    Cantelli, 83 Mass. App. Ct. at 158
    ; Cypher, Criminal Practice &
    Procedure § 5.156 (4th ed. 2014); Grasso & McEvoy, Suppression
    Matters Under Massachusetts Law §§ 4-2[f][1], 14-1[c][3][vi]
    (2017 ed.).
    10
    "The reason is plain:   'People could well die in emergencies if
    police tried to act with the calm deliberation associated with
    the judicial process.'"   Commonwealth v. Ringgard, 71 Mass. App.
    Ct. 197, 201 (2008), quoting from Wayne v. United States, 
    318 F.2d 205
    , 212 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 
    375 U.S. 860
    (1963).
    In such cases, probable cause is not required, "because the
    purpose of police entry is not to investigate criminal activity.
    . . .   Instead, a warrantless entry 'must meet two strict
    requirements.   First, there must be objectively reasonable
    grounds to believe that an emergency exists. . . .   Second, the
    conduct of the police following the entry must be reasonable
    under the circumstances . . . .'"    
    Duncan, 467 Mass. at 750
    ,
    quoting from 
    Peters, 453 Mass. at 823
    .    The burden of showing
    reasonableness is on the Commonwealth.    Cantelli, 83 Mass. App.
    Ct. at 167.
    "The injury sought to be avoided must be immediate and
    serious, and the mere existence of a potentially harmful
    circumstance is not sufficient."    Commonwealth v. Kirschner, 
    67 Mass. App. Ct. 836
    , 841-842 (2006).   But neither is "ironclad
    proof of 'a likely serious, life-threatening' injury"
    required.   Commonwealth v. Entwistle, 
    463 Mass. 205
    , 214 (2012),
    cert. denied, 
    568 U.S. 1129
    (2013), quoting from Michigan
    v. Fisher, 
    558 U.S. 45
    , 49 (2009).    "It suffices that there are
    11
    objectively reasonable grounds to believe that emergency aid
    might be needed."   
    Entwistle, supra
    .
    "[W]hether an [emergency] existed, and whether the response
    of the police was reasonable and therefore lawful, are matters
    to be evaluated in relation to the scene as it could appear to
    the officers at the time, not as it may seem to a scholar after
    the event with the benefit of leisured retrospective
    analysis."   Commonwealth v. Young, 
    382 Mass. 448
    , 456 (1981).
    What matters are the objective circumstances known to police
    officers; their subjective motives are irrelevant.     
    Entwistle, 463 Mass. at 214
    .
    Thus, in Snell, the court upheld a warrantless entry into
    the defendant's house because "[t]here existed objectively
    reasonable grounds to believe that [the defendant's wife] might
    be injured or dead inside," presenting a domestic violence
    situation, "which often calls for rapid police response designed
    to prevent further injury to a victim, to see whether a threat
    against a victim has been carried out, or to ascertain whether
    some other grave misfortune has befallen a 
    victim." 428 Mass. at 775
    .   And in Cantelli, we upheld a warrantless police entry
    into the defendant's apartment to allow a technician to turn off
    the gas supply to the defendant's stove, where his prior erratic
    conduct in allowing "explosive levels" of gas to fill his
    apartment, and in refusing entry to the technician, presented
    12
    "an emergency of sufficient proportions . . . to render a
    warrantless entry 
    reasonable." 83 Mass. App. Ct. at 165-166
    .
    The emergency aid exception also applies to searches within
    lawfully-entered homes.    In Commonwealth v. Samuel, 80 Mass.
    App. Ct. 560 (2011), the police, after entering an apartment
    with a resident's consent, searched under a pillow where they
    reasonably believed the defendant had hidden a loaded firearm.
    The defendant had earlier told others that he would use the
    firearm in a killing for hire.   We upheld the search under the
    emergency aid exception.    
    Id. at 562-564.
    Other decisions have applied the exception to uphold
    warrantless searches of places other than homes, in order to
    find and assist a victim of serious physical harm or to prevent
    such harm from occurring.   See Commonwealth v. Marchione, 
    384 Mass. 8
    , 11-12 (1981) (search of commercial premises where there
    was reason to believe explosive liquid was stored in partially-
    open containers near homemade incendiary device); Commonwealth
    v. Ortiz, 
    435 Mass. 569
    , 572-573 (2002) (search of fruit store
    to find missing person who police reasonably believed was inside
    and injured or dead); Commonwealth v. DiMarzio, 52 Mass. App.
    Ct. 746, 747-750 (2001), S.C., 
    436 Mass. 1012
    (2002) (police
    entry into warehouse office to find angry, intoxicated man who
    had just threatened to come to couple's house with
    shotgun); Commonwealth v. McCarthy, 
    71 Mass. App. Ct. 591
    , 594-
    13
    595 (2008) (search of handbag of woman who collapsed in public
    of apparent drug overdose, to find type of drug she might have
    ingested in order to assist medical personnel in treating her).
    We mention two other cases that illustrate the reach of the
    emergency aid exception.   In Duncan, the court extended the
    exception to protect nonhuman animal 
    life. 467 Mass. at 753
    .
    And in Commonwealth v. Hurd, 
    29 Mass. App. Ct. 929
    (1990), we
    applied the exception to uphold police officers' stop of a motor
    vehicle with New Hampshire license plates approaching the
    entrance to a highway, based on an anonymous tip that the driver
    was intoxicated and had three small children with him.   "The
    police, having reasonable grounds to believe that an exigency
    existed, acted appropriately in stopping the automobile to see
    if, in fact, the driver was intoxicated.   Such action was
    reasonably necessary to protect the children and the public from
    'unnecessary exposure to risk of injury.'"   
    Id. at 930-931,
    quoting from Commonwealth v. Fitzgibbons, 
    23 Mass. App. Ct. 301
    ,
    306 (1986).
    b.   Application of emergency aid exception.   The defendant
    does not contend that the emergency aid exception could never
    justify warrantless real-time CSLI tracking; rather, she argues
    only that the exception's requirements were not met here.
    Therefore, assuming without deciding that this was a search, we
    will also assume without deciding that it would have been
    14
    permissible if the exception's requirements were met. 10
    Accordingly, we examine whether the Commonwealth has met its
    "burden of showing that authorities had a reasonable ground to
    believe that an emergency existed and that the actions of the
    police were reasonable in the circumstances."   Commonwealth
    v. Knowles, 
    451 Mass. 91
    , 96 (2008).
    We have no difficulty concluding that these standards were
    met here.   The police overheard a phone call in which an angry,
    upset individual said she was "going to get the . . . gun" and
    was "about to go shoot up [someone] right now . . . .      I'm going
    to his, I'm going right there, right now."   The police
    identified the person making the threat as the defendant and
    thus inferred that she was likely talking about shooting Dorsey.
    The judge, after listening to a recording of the call, found
    that "the police were reasonable in having grave concerns about
    the defendant imminently causing serious bodily harm," and we
    see no basis for rejecting that finding.   See DiMarzio, 52 Mass.
    App. Ct. at 747-751 (emergency aid exception applied where
    10Several courts have concluded that the emergency aid
    exception justified real-time CSLI tracking in particular
    circumstances. See United States v. Gilliam, No. 11 Crim. 1083
    (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 12, 2012); United States v. Takai, 
    943 F. Supp. 2d
    1315, 1323 (D. Utah 2013); United States v. Caraballo, 
    963 F. Supp. 2d 341
    , 363–364 (D. Vt. 2013), aff'd, 
    831 F.3d 95
    (2d
    Cir. 2016), cert. denied, 
    137 S. Ct. 654
    (2017). See also
    Carpenter v. United 
    States, 138 S. Ct. at 2223
    (although
    government generally needs warrant to access CSLI, there may be
    exceptions for exigencies such as "the need to . . . protect
    individuals who are threatened with imminent harm").
    15
    police reasonably believed that angry, intoxicated person had
    just threatened to come to couple's house with shotgun); 
    Samuel, 80 Mass. App. Ct. at 563-564
    (exception applied where police
    reasonably believed that person had concealed loaded gun under
    pillow and announced that he had been hired to kill someone).
    Although the defendant here argues that the police had no basis
    other than her own statement for believing she had access to a
    firearm, such a statement was found sufficient in 
    DiMarzio, 52 Mass. App. Ct. at 748-749
    , and it was sufficient here.
    What police did not know here, at the time of the call, was
    the whereabouts of the defendant.   In the circumstances, it was
    objectively reasonable for the police to request real-time CSLI,
    in order to determine the defendant's current location and the
    direction in which she was moving, and thus to find and
    intercept her before she could shoot Dorsey.
    The defendant points out that when AT&T, in response to the
    "exigency request," sent the police her subscriber information
    as well her real-time CSLI information, the police learned her
    home address in Braintree.   She argues that at that point, the
    police could have asked their counterparts in Braintree to look
    for her at her home, instead of tracking her using CSLI.    But
    this ignores, among other factors, that the police had no
    information suggesting that she was actually at her home or
    would still be there when police arrived.   Indeed, the police
    16
    had just heard her say that she was "going to get the . . . gun"
    and "going to his . . . going right there, right now" to shoot
    the intended victim, thus indicating that she was leaving
    wherever she was and going to wherever she believed Dorsey was.
    The defendant's second-guessing approach contravenes the
    principle that the reasonableness of the police response is "to
    be evaluated in relation to the scene as it could appear to the
    officers at the time . . . ."   
    Young, 382 Mass. at 456
    .
    The same is true of the defendant's argument that the
    police, once they formed a belief that her target was Dorsey and
    that he might be at his girl friend's address, could simply have
    gone to that address instead of tracking her using CSLI.    Even
    assuming (although the record does not show it) that the police
    formed this belief about Dorsey's whereabouts before they
    obtained any CSLI, their belief was merely that Dorsey "may have
    been" at that address.   It was reasonable for the police to
    believe that a more direct and sure way of preventing the
    defendant from shooting Dorsey was to find and intercept the
    defendant herself.   See 
    DiMarzio, 52 Mass. App. Ct. at 748
    (where defendant left couple's house but threatened to return
    with a shotgun, "[i]t was reasonable for the police to go
    looking for the defendant to gather further information").
    The defendant makes no other argument that the police
    lacked reasonable ground to believe that an emergency existed or
    17
    that their actions were unreasonable in the circumstances.      The
    police tracked her location using CSLI for a brief period,
    apparently not exceeding two hours, and intercepted her
    immediately after hearing her say, in a second phone call, that
    she was "sitting right in front of [the girl friend's] house,"
    and was going to "shoot him and his bitch in the face."    We
    conclude that the police use of the CSLI voluntarily provided by
    AT&T, assuming without deciding that it was a search that could
    in principle be justified by the emergency aid exception, was
    justified on these facts.
    2.   Search of motor vehicle.   The judge upheld the search
    of the defendant's motor vehicle based on the automobile
    exception to the warrant requirement. 11   That exception "applies
    to situations where the police have probable cause to believe
    that a motor vehicle parked in a public place and apparently
    capable of being moved contains contraband or evidence of a
    crime."   Commonwealth v. Dame, 
    473 Mass. 524
    , 536 (quotation
    omitted), cert. denied, 
    137 S. Ct. 132
    (2016).    The exception
    extends to a vehicle's trunk, if the item(s) sought may
    reasonably be thought to be there.   See Commonwealth v. Garden,
    
    451 Mass. 43
    , 51-52 (2008); Commonwealth v. Hernandez, 
    473 Mass. 11The
    judge did not address whether the search was valid as
    an inventory search incident to an impoundment of the vehicle.
    We therefore need not address the defendant's argument on appeal
    that the police lacked a valid basis for impoundment. See
    Commonwealth v. Gouse, 
    461 Mass. 787
    , 792 n.7 (2012).
    18
    379, 383-384 (2015).   The judge here concluded that police had
    probable cause to believe that "the defendant's car contained a
    loaded firearm and that she intended to use it."
    On appeal the defendant argues that the automobile
    exception was inapplicable only because the police lacked
    probable cause to search the trunk for a gun. 12   She contends
    that, although her statements to Coke gave reason to "suspect
    that she was carrying a gun, . . . once the stun gun was located
    in [her] purse, the force of those statements as evidence that
    she had some other type of gun was greatly diluted" and fell
    below the level of probable cause.
    Even assuming that the stun gun was found first (an issue
    on which the evidence was unclear and the judge made no
    finding), we disagree.   The defendant stated in the first call
    that she was going to "get the fucking gun" and "shoot up" the
    intended victim.   She stated in the second call, from outside
    12Because the defendant does not contend otherwise, we
    assume that the search was lawful if, as the judge concluded,
    there was probable cause to believe that the defendant intended
    to use the gun to shoot someone, i.e., that she was about to
    commit a crime. The United States Supreme Court "repeatedly has
    explained that 'probable cause' to justify an arrest means facts
    and circumstances within the officer's knowledge that are
    sufficient to warrant a prudent person, or one of reasonable
    caution, in believing, in the circumstances shown, that the
    suspect has committed, is committing, or is about to commit an
    offense." Michigan v. DeFillippo, 
    443 U.S. 31
    , 37 (1979). The
    defendant does not argue that art. 14 imposes any stricter
    standard in this regard. See Commonwealth v. Fulgiam, 
    477 Mass. 20
    , 33, cert. denied, 
    138 S. Ct. 330
    (2017).
    19
    his girl friend's residence, that she was going to "shoot him
    and his bitch in the face," that she was prepared to "pistol
    whip" him, and that if he sent anyone to attack her, it would be
    a "firefight."   These statements furnished ample objective
    grounds -- in no way weakened by the discovery of a stun gun in
    her handbag -- to believe that the defendant possessed and was
    prepared to use a loaded firearm, and that it was somewhere in
    the motor vehicle.
    Order denying motions to
    suppress affirmed.