Boston Police gang unit officers used data from a GPS device tethered to the ankle of Dennis Wilson Jr. to track the 26-year-old to the sport utility vehicle that would become the scene of a shootout last Friday on Humboldt Avenue, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation.
The officers wanted to talk to him about gunshots reported two hours earlier on Brookledge Street, where Wilson lives. But when Officer John Moynihan walked up to the car, the driver, Angelo West, allegedly stepped out and shot him point-blank in the face.
West, 41, was killed in the firefight with police that followed.
Moynihan remained Thursday in the intensive care unit at Boston Medical Center, where he is improving, said Boston Police Lieutenant Michael McCarthy.
Wilson and another passenger in the SUV, 22-year-old Jonathan Aguasvivas, 22, who a law enforcement official identified as a gang associate of Wilson’s, were arrested, though neither was charged in connection with the shooting.
On Thursday, Wilson was ordered during a hearing in Roxbury Municipal Court to stay away from Aguasvivas and from the Roxbury neighborhood where the shootout occurred. He was already under orders to wear the GPS bracelet and follow a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew as conditions of his bail in three open cases.
In court, Wilson’s attorney Bill Lane objected to police accessing Wilson’s GPS data, saying it violated Wilson’s privacy rights.
The report of gunfire that police were investigating last Friday happened at 45 Brookledge St., where two shell casings were found. Wilson listed his address as 51 Brookledge St. on court documents. No one has been charged in connection with that report of gunfire.
Wilson has been convicted twice of unarmed robbery, receiving a sentence of one to four years in state prison in 2010 for the first offense, and a suspended sentence of 18 months in 2014 for the second. Court documents describing his current open cases show that Wilson also has an alleged history of threatening and violent behavior toward police officers.
In December, Wilson was attending an arraignment in Roxbury when he and a group of his alleged H-Block gang associates began threatening a police officer who was also at the hearing, court documents show.
The altercation began in the hallway, where Wilson’s friends allegedly accosted an officer about why he was messing with them, then muttered curses under their breath inside the courtroom. One man allegedly winked and blew kisses at the officer, and rubbed his hands together and mouthed indecipherable words.
Once the officer left the courtroom, one man allegedly threatened to “smash” the officer’s head, using a racial slur. When the officer asked what he said, Wilson allegedly got in his face and screamed a series of vulgarities, then said, “What you gonna do [expletive]? I’ll [expletive] you up, [expletive].”
Wilson and his associates allegedly fled, but were charged with making threats and intimidating a police officer.
A half-hour later, a few blocks away, police responded to a report of a person with a gun, and they stopped Wilson and several others.
Wilson allegedly told officers, “Take your badges off,” and “I’ll [expletive] you guys up,” according to court documents. He allegedly took off his jacket and shirt.
Police released the group to continue searching for the person with the gun, but stopped them again a short time later “as they may have been part of the original incident,” according to the documents, and Wilson again allegedly began shouting at police. He allegedly ignored commands to calm down and moved toward police “in a threatening manner,” at which point police scuffled with Wilson and he was arrested.
Wilson was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
In an incident last April, Wilson was charged with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of property damage after the car he was allegedly driving was hit by gunfire and crashed, according to court documents.
Related:
• 3/30: Suspect’s death at traffic stop caps life of violence
• 3/29: Officer shot in Roxbury improving after surgery
• 3/28: Suspect fired at police with no warning
• 3/28: Wounded officer commanded respect in Iraq
Evan Allen can be reached at evan.allen@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @evanmallen.