Suspected shooter of Boston cop ordered held in jail
The Dorchester man accused of shooting a Boston Police officer in the chest near Franklin Park last night was ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for later this month.
Avery Lewis, 31, of Dorchester, appeared Tuesday morning in Dorchester District Court to be arraigned on a slew of charges related to an incident in the 9 o’clock hour last night that sent one BPD officer to the hospital.
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Lewis had a plea of not guilty entered on his behalf to 10 charges, including armed assault to murder, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and trafficking cocaine — as well as several related firearms charges, which were listed as second offenses in the reading.
The judge ordered him held pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for March 29.
Boston Police responded to the first block of Esmond Street in Dorchester a little after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday after receiving a call from a woman who said her child’s father was outside the home of her boyfriend and had a gun, at which point the call disconnected, according to the police report.
Police allege they spotted Lewis at the scene. He was clad in a sweatshirt and sweatpants with a balaclava-style facemask and walking from the area of concern on Esmond Street toward Blue Hill Avenue and displaying a nervous energy, “hypervigilance” in their presence and looked to be moving in a way to hide a firearm, police allege in their report.
When officers got out of their cruiser to question him, he ran, prosecutor Kaitlin Tolbert said, and they pursued. An officer got a hold of him a few houses down and across the street, based on the addresses provided in the report, and then “one loud pop sounded, which the Officers immediately knew was a gunshot.”
Police wrestled Lewis to the ground. Lewis, police allege in the report, “continued to violently resist arrest and struggle.” Once Lewis was subdued, officers wrote, police located a Smith and Wesson 9mm semi-automatic pistol “on his person” and removed it.
The unidentified officer who Lewis is alleged to have shot was hit on the left side of his chest. He was transported to Boston Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. The officer’s life was saved, BPD Commissioner Michael Cox said, thanks to his department-issued bullet-proof vest.
Criminal history
According to at least one case in Lewis’ criminal record, which the Herald confirmed by name and birth date, he is a known cocaine dealer in Boston.
In November 2017, Lewis was charged with distributing crack, with the charge elevated because it was sold near a school.
Another case the district court handled was a 2009, in which he was charged with stealing a man’s phone at gunpoint on an MBTA bus. According to the police report, the victim was on the phone with his mother when Avery and another young person walked onto the bus, sat down next to him and took immediate interest in his T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 cell phone.
The pair then asked him if he was from “Seaver Street,” to which the man replied that he didn’t “roll with gangs,” according to a later interview with Transit Police detectives. They then demanded that the man hand over his phone, but he refused.
“You can either give me the phone now and nothing will happen to you, or we can get off the bus, you can get shot and I will take your phone from you,” Lewis is alleged to have told the victim, according to the later interview with detectives. Lewis then allegedly placed a pistol against the man’s hip
The victim handed over the phone and then the assailants forced him off the bus at Blue Hill Ave and American Legion Highway.
This is a developing story.
