Maybe the truth will come out

Vincent J. Curtis

31 Aug 23

RE: Customer of slain Port Dover gunsmith suing Toronto police for $2.6M.  News item by J.P. Antonacci.  The Hamilton Spectator 31 Aug 23.

Perhaps this lawsuit will force into the public consciousness that Toronto police murdered a man in Port Dover.  The SIU investigation produced an utter whitewash.  At the very least, the grotesque tactical handling of this planned arrest ought to have been severely criticized.  Heads ought to have rolled.  People ought to have been re-assigned.  But no; Rodger Kotanko was recklessly and needlessly killed by Toronto police.

The arrest team dispatched from Toronto on a Sunday to arrest a man outside of their jurisdiction and without informing the local OPP detachment that they would be operating in their area.  The Toronto police hit team had Kotanko’s workshop staked out in the hour before he arrived.  They burst in, guns drawn, and from, the testimony of the witness C.W., needlessly shot Kotanko four times, until he was dead.  This shooting was needless because the officers could have been (and probably were) wearing vests; they had the drop on him; and an officer could quickly have taken the empty gun from Kotanko as another covered him, then slapped on the handcuffs.

The police should have known that the gun in Kotenko’s hand was empty because that’s how the gun laws in Canada work.  The innocent customer, C.W., wouldn’t be taking a loaded gun to Kotanko’s shop; he’d need an ATT for that, and police have access to that information.

I’m hoping C.W.’s civil suit will finally bring justice to this wanton and reckless killing by police.

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