Windsor man convicted of illegal gun possession inside troubled downtown apartment building

A Windsor man has been convicted of having illegal weapons in his possession. CTV Windsor’s Michelle Maluske explains.

A Windsor man has been convicted of illegal gun possession inside a troubled downtown apartment building.

Daniel Gerow, 30, was convicted Friday to bringing a rifle and shotgun into 333 Glengarry Avenue, also known as Wheelton Manor.

On May 30, 2024, Gerow was caught on surveillance video carrying a sawed-off shotgun and a rifle into two separate apartment units on the sixth floor.

Gerow was then seen leaving both units empty-handed.

“This was a very strong, if not overwhelming case for the Crown,” Justice Mikolaj Bazylko concluded.

Gerow was convicted of possession of a sawed-off Churchill shotgun, possession of an Axor rifle, possession of the weapons for a dangerous purpose and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number.

When Windsor Police arrested Gerow, he did not have the weapons on his person.

However, officers found weapons like those seen on surveillance video inside the two units that Gerow entered and left.

“There’s simply no way that the person wearing (the t-shirt) is anyone else other than the accused,” Bazylko said.

He also said it would “defy logic” to dispute the weapons in Gerow’s possession on video, were not the same as the ones found in the units he visited.

The criminal code makes possession an offence “whether or not that place belongs to or is occupied by him for the use or benefit of himself.”

Of all the evidence and exhibits used during the three-day trial, the judge relied on the “extremely clear and very good quality” surveillance videos to form his decision.

According to Gerow’s lawyer Ken Marley, three other illegal weapon charges were withdrawn by the crown during the trial.

Marley says those were related to an airsoft pistol which was also seized but was later deemed to not meet the definition of an illegal firearm under the Criminal Code of Canada.

Marley also confirmed for CTV News, Gerow is involved in two other outstanding court cases, for allegations laid around the same time (spring of 2024).

He is in the middle of a trial on allegations of abduction and torture according to Marley, who will also represent Gerow in a murder trial sometime next year.

Gerow is facing a first-degree murder charge in relation to the death of Dalton Bartnik.

None of those allegations have been proven in court.