PEOPLE, & C., RESPONDENT, v. TYRONE POWELL, APPELLANT.

    89 N.Y.2d 1063, 681 N.E.2d 1278, 659 N.Y.S.2d 832 (1997).
    May 6, 1997

   1 No. 79 (1997 NY Int. 72)
   Decided May 6, 1997
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   This memorandum is uncorrected and subject to revision before
   publication in the New York Reports.

   Appellant.

   MEMORANDUM:

   The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.

   In People v Hollman (79 NY2d 181, 191), we reaffirmed that police
   officers, acting upon an articulable reason, may approach an
   individual to request information concerning the individual's
   identity, destination or reason for being in an area and, "(i)f the
   individual is carrying something that would appear to a trained police
   officer to be unusual, the police officer can ask about that object."
   Defendant was observed by two Department of Sanitation peace officers
   in an area known for illegal dumping, with a 50 gallon cardboard
   barrel protruding from his car trunk. After defendant passed the
   officers twice, turned off his car's headlights, and backed the wrong
   way up a one-way street to a spot where there was a hole in a fence,
   the officers reasonably inquired of defendant whether he intended to
   dump the barrel, and what was in the barrel. Thus, there is support in
   the record for the Appellate Division's determination that the
   officers' request for information was justified. Defendant's motion to
   suppress his response (that he had killed his girlfriend, and her body
   was in the barrel) and the physical evidence was properly denied.

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   Order affirmed, in a memorandum. Chief Judge Kaye and Judges Titone,
   Bellacosa, Smith, Levine, Ciparick and Wesley concur.

   Decided May 6, 1997