Police Find Sex Offender In Bed With Gun

Woonsocket Police were called to a Church Street apartment Dec. 25, 2013 at 2 p.m. for a man who reported his heavily intoxicated roommate was worrying him, finding the latter in bed with a gun.

According to Det. Lt. Christopher Brooks' report, the officers spoke with the inebriated roommate, Michael Joseph Wheelock, 44, who said the gun didn't work, since it didn't have a firing pin. Officers did not find any ammunition in the room or the gun, a .22 caliber pistol. 

Brooks later learned Wheelock was a registered sex offender, convicted of child molestation in Warwick in 1989. He test fired the weapon, which operated normally, shooting two .22 caliber rounds with it.   

On Dec. 31, Brooks returned to Wheelock's apartment and arrested him, charging him with possession of arms by a convict, a felony.