#Norinco 1911a1 serial numbers serial numbers#
Toronto police forensically restored serial numbers and other markings on the guns, which they believe were removed using a milling machine. The other was recovered two months later, after police in North Bay, investigating a possible kidnapping, stopped a stolen vehicle and found a young person from Toronto in possession of a handgun. One gun was seized in August 2021 in Toronto, and was in the possession of a young person. 45-calibre handguns with serial numbers and branding markings removed. In January, Kotanko’s family launched a $23 million wrongful death lawsuit arguing, in part, that the police theory made no sense because the respected gunsmith’s custom guns could fetch upwards of $7,000 apiece in a legal sale.Īccording to search warrant documents obtained by the Star, the Toronto police Gun and Gang Task Force was investigating Kotanko after the recovery of two Norinco 1911A1.
Police raided Kotanko’s workshop after finding two seized handguns they believed he milled away serial numbers from, and then illegally transferred. “The Kotanko family is taking time to review and absorb the report, and try to understand how a customer’s life could be endangered and Rodger killed without a single police officer taking any responsibility,” said the family’s lawyer, Michael Smitiuch, who added that the family will have more to say at a press conference next week. In a statement, Kotanko’s family said it was “disappointed” by the decision not lay criminal charges against the officer who fired the shots. “Importantly,” noted Martino, “the civilian eyewitness evidence was materially consistent with the police eyewitness accounts.” The subject officer, as was his right, did not agree to an SIU interview, nor did he authorize the release of his notes. In all, eight officers attached to the Toronto police Firearm Enforcement Unit were involved. “In the result, as there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the force used by the (subject officer) was not legally justified, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case against the officer,” he concluded. “For whatever reason, (Kotanko) ignored the officers’ direction that he raise his hands,” wrote SIU director Joseph Martino. Kotanko was treated at the scene but later died in hospital. One officer - designated the subject officer of the SIU investigation - then fired his gun four times in rapid succession, striking Kotanko and “knocking him off his chair onto his back,” the report said. “Within seconds of their entry, he reached with his right hand towards the workbench, retrieved (the customer’s handgun) and turned with it in the officers’ direction as they yelled at him to drop the gun.’” Kotanko “did not raise his hands at the officers’ repeated direction,” the report said. While the customer raised his hands, two officers, guns drawn, focused on Kotanko, who was seated by a workbench. “Police, search warrant,” and, “Put your hands up,” the officers called out as they neared and entered the workshop’s door, said the report released Thursday.
The Toronto police officer who shot and killed Rodger Kotanko while executing a warrant did so to “protect himself” after the Simcoe, Ont., gunsmith refused to drop a firearm he had pointed at them, according to the director of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit.Īccording to the SIU director’s report clearing the officer of criminal wrongdoing, police entered Kotanko’s workshop, which had its door open, around 1 p.m.
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