Video shoot turns into melee in Dorchester

The filming of a rap video on a Dorchester cul-de-sac yesterday evening ended with six people under arrest and the confiscation of four loaded guns, police and prosecutors say.

One man had bail set at $100,000, two others at $75,000, at their arraignments today in Dorchester Municipal Court. Prosecutors had asked for bail as high as $500,000.

Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Patrick Mulligan said one of the suspects, David Stewart, 21, of Dorchester, is lucky to be alive, because he refused repeated demands by police to drop the loaded gun he was carrying in one hand - in fact, he picked it back up a couple of times after dropping it while jumping fences in an escape attempt. Dorchester Municipal Court Judge James Coffee set his bail at $75,000. Mulligan had asked for $250,000 bail on charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, carrying a loaded firearm, resisting arrest and trespassing.

Stewart allegedly told police he had the gun "for protection; you never know who's going to run up on you, you just don't understand," the assistant DA said.

Mulligan said the same luck - and restraint by Boston police officers - held for Nickhlas Simpson, 22, who allegedly violently resisted arrest after yelling at cops and then pushing a sergeant on scene from behind while he had a loaded gun in his waistband. As the sergeant and other officers got him to the ground, he began screaming at the crowd he was being abused and then, when the cops discovered the gun, allegedly said "You're lucky I didn't pull that out." Coffee set his bail at $75,000; the prosecution had asked for $500,000 on charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and carrying a loaded firearm and two counts of assault and battery on a police officer.

Coffee set bail at $100,000 for Taylor Nelson, 23, of Hyde Park, who prosecutors say tried to flee into an apartment at 13 Fernald Terrace and, when he found it locked, burst into another apartment where he left his gun as police closed in on him. Prosecutors say he "began to wave his arms around against the officers" as part of a "violent struggle" to avoid arrest. Mulligan had asked for $250,000 bail on charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, being an armed career criminal and home invasion.

Mulligan said a large group of people were gathered on Fernald Terrace to make a rap video - a tripod and camera were set up in the middle of the dead end. When plainclothes gang-unit officers, responding to a report of "a disturbance of some sort," got out of a car to investigate why there was a large crowd in the middle of the street around 6:30 p.m., two people - Stewart and Nelson - began moving away from the cops and went up the steps to 13 Fernald. "Oh, fuck!" one of them allegedly mutterered as the officers approached, the assistant DA said.

Stewart then ran away, leading officers on a chase that involved jumps over a couple of fences before ending on Ronan Street, while Nelson ran into 13 Fernald. People in the apartment Nelson allegedly entered pointed out to police where he'd left his gun.

Meanwhile, Simpson and another man, Joseph Wheeler, 21, of Dorchester, were inciting the crowd of people in the area to advance on the police officers trying to take care of the gun arrests, to the point one officer had to use pepper spray to get people to back off and officers from across the city were called in to help control the situation, Mulligan said.

Scott Lauer, Nelson's attorney, said there might be another side to the story, one that paints a different picture than the prosecution's and shows just why a melee broke out, and one he predicted will come out once he collects video from all the people at the scene who got their phones out. He said the prosecution's proposed bail amounts were way out of proportion with requests for bail in other gun cases in Dorchester court.

Fritznel Vilsaint, 28, of Malden, and Andria Rowlands, 21, of Brockton, both had bail set at $2,500 on charges of illegal possession of the loaded gun police found wrapped in a Bruins sweatshirt in the Jeep Vilsaint was driving and Rowlands was a passenger in.

Their attorneys both said the two were in the wrong place at the wrong time and suggested that in the melee one of the people the cops really wanted dropped the gun in the back of the Jeep, which had its top down. Vilsaint's attorney said a friend had asked if they could use his Jeep for the video; he added police searched the Jeep only after Vilsaint had politely asked if he could leave what had obviously become a trouble area.

Rowlands had nothing to do with the guns or the resulting incident, her lawyer said. He said she is a theater and public-relations student at Barry University in Miami just two days into her summer break and only sat in the SUV to give her aching feet a break - she came into court still wearing the heels she had on yesterday.

Wheeler was the only one to walk out of court right after his hearing. Coffee released him on the $200 bail he'd posted after his arrest yesterday on charges of disturbing the peace and being a disorderly person; Mulligan had asked for $10,000 bail for him.

Innocent, etc.