Police: Providence shooting victim in possession of illegal firearms, one with 31 round magazine

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The victim of a Wednesday shooting on Branch Avenue has been arrested by Providence police after their investigation of the incident.

According to a Providence Police Department report, Nelson Forkpa was detained Thursday while recovering his belongings at Providence police Central Station.

The report said that Forkpa is a known associate of the Chad Brown/Lockwood/Clowntown street gangs.

It also stated that he had been arrested with an illegal firearm used in a gang-related shots fired incident in December of 2024.

Officers detained Forkpa and notified him that a search warrant had been obtained for his person and residence.

Violent Crime Task Force personnel initiated a search of his attic apartment.

Officers said that they discovered and seized two firearms wrapped in a black T-shirt on the building’s roof.

Both firearms were fitted with machine gun conversion devices and high-capacity magazines, one of them holding up to 31 rounds.

Forkpa was interviewed by police after his arrest and denied knowledge of the firearms, claiming that one friend had entered his residence this week.

Forkpa consented to a DNA swab and was held and charged with:

• Two counts of possession and modify a firearm with a machine gun conversion device
• Two counts of possession of a machine gun conversion device
• Two counts of possession of a large-capacity Feeding device
• One count of possession of a ghost gun