Stolen property, a counterfeit bill and a loaded shotgun added up to six months in jail for a man with an already lengthy criminal record.
Brian Eldon Kaminski, 35 pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon contrary to an order, possession of stolen property and using counterfeit currency, while the crown withdrew a host of other charges. He was handed a six-month sentence, but given 27 days credit for the time he already spent in custody.
Kaminski was arrested during a sweeping police operation on Sept. 21 that also ended with two other people under arrest.
Police first received a call around 11 a.m. from Shoppers Drug Mart about a man who had attempted to buy syringes using a counterfeit $20 bill. Police arrived after Kaminski left, but he was captured on the store’s security footage.
Later that day, police received a report of three suspicious people in the St. Albert Centre parking lot. A security guard at the Bay reported three people, including one who was wearing a mask, hanging around a white Chrysler Dynasty.
Kaminski was one of those three, but left on a bike just before police arrived and arrested the other two, because the car was stolen.
After they were in custody, the other two told police that Kaminski had been with them, but left on his bicycle and that he was carrying a sawed-off shotgun in his bag. Police were told he was likely somewhere between the mall and Sturgeon Road along the river.
Kaminski then sparked two more police reports. A woman called police when she found him in her backyard carrying a laptop and a bystander flagged police down when she saw him run out of the woods and climb into a taxi.
Police located the taxi and arrested Kaminski at gunpoint. Once he was in custody, police began asking about the weapon. He had the laptop with him, along with a satchel that had many pieces of jewelry.
Police told him if he told them where the gun was he would not face weapons charges. While he was subsequently charged with several weapons offences, Crown prosecutor Maria Caffaro said the officers’ promise bound the court and she withdrew most of those charges.
The proposed sentence came as a joint submission from Caffaro and Kaminski’s lawyer.
Judge Bruce Garriock said Kaminski’s criminal record concerned him and he was troubled by the real danger created by leaving the gun in the wooded area.
“I also find it aggravating that there was a shotgun, with a round in the chamber, hidden where it could have been accessed by a citizen and certainly children.”
In addition to the shotgun, police also seized a knife, shotgun ammunition and two small clubs, which were all forfeited for destruction.
Kaminski was put under a lifetime weapons bans for restricted firearms and a ten-year ban for all other weapons. He was also ordered to submit a DNA sample to the national database.
