Suspect allegedly hid guns in his wheelchair

November 1, 2008 06:19 PM Email| Comments (12)| Text size – +

By Benjamin Paulin, Globe Correspondent

Police officers investigating a report of an armed robbery lifted a South Boston man from the wheelchair he was sitting in and found three guns, two equipped with high-capacity magazines and one with a laser sight, authorities said today.

Edwin J. Prosper Jr., 22, was charged with three counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and numerous counts of unlawful possession of ammunition.

“He was literally sitting on top of them,” said Officer Eddy Chrispin, a police spokesman.

Prosper was arrested after police and a SWAT team converged Friday night on an apartment building at 20 Pilsudski Way in South Boston as part of an armed robbery investigation.

The story began unfolding at about 7 p.m. when two men walking down Columbia Road in South Boston were confronted by a group of males who asked them how much money they had and then allegedly stole one of their cellphones, police said in a statement.

The two men chased the assailants and struggled with them in front of the Pilsudski Way building, police said. The two men said that, during the struggle, a 15-year-old suspect threatened them with a gun. The two men also reported seeing a man in dreadlocks in a window of one apartment holding a gun.

The men fled, then returned with the police and pointed out the apartment. Police brought nine people out -- three females and six males, including Prosper -- and searched them. None had guns, except for Prosper who was sitting on three 9mm semiautomatic handguns, one of which was loaded, police said.

“We have had incidents where we’ve had people secrete weapons in their wheelchairs,” said Chrispin. “It doesn’t happen on a regular basis.”

Chrispin said he did not know whether the man was injured, disabled or simply using the wheelchair as a prop.

Prosper is to be arraigned at South Boston District Court on Monday. The 15-year-old suspect and the other four males in the apartment are facing charges of armed assault with intent to rob, police said.