North Smithfield man charged with possessing 15 ghost guns and dozens of large capacity magazines

Published on Thursday, July 13, 2023

An indictment, information, or complaint is merely an allegation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. 

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced that a North Smithfield man has been charged in Providence County Superior Court with possessing 15 ghost guns, dozens of large capacity magazines, and related gun charges following his arrest by the Rhode Island State Police (RISP) on March 23, 2023.

On July 3, 2023, the Office of the Attorney General charged Elliott Knorr (age 43), by way of criminal information, with 15 counts of possession of a ghost gun, two counts of possession of large capacity feeding devices, one count of firing in a compact area, and one count of conspiracy to fire in a compact area.

As alleged in the criminal information, in March 2023, the RISP’s Violent Fugitive Task Force (VFTF) developed the defendant as a suspect involved in an incident where a gun was fired in the vicinity of a public park in North Smithfield.

On March 29, 2023, members of the VFTF executed a search warrant at the defendant’s home in North Smithfield where they arrested him and seized 23 guns, including 15 ghost guns, ghost gun jigs and manufacturing tools, 40 large capacity magazines, additional non-large capacity magazines, and significant amounts of various calibers of ammunition.

It is alleged that investigators also seized the defendant’s cell phone and reviewed video of the shooting incident that depicted the defendant voluntarily being shot in his backyard, which abuts Pacheco Park in North Smithfield, with two bystanders nearby in the line of fire. The defendant later told investigators that he was voluntarily shot with “rubber buck shot.”

The defendant is scheduled for a pre-arraignment conference on September 18, 2023, in Providence County Superior Court.