Two men caught with a loaded handgun Friday and held on high bail yesterday may have been planning a shooting when they were interrupted by Boston Police, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

DANTE BRAMWELL-ELLIOTT (D.O.B. 7/6/88) of Dorchester and MALCOLM CAMPBELL (D.O.B. 4/23/90) of South Boston were arraigned yesterday in Dorchester District Court on gun and drug charges stemming from their Friday evening arrests.

Assistant District Attorney Brendan Cox recommended that the defendants be held on $35,000 cash bail each and that the bail on their open cases, both alleging motor vehicle offenses, be revoked. Judge Rosalind Miller set bail at $25,000 for Bramwell-Elliott and $30,000 for Campbell. Miller declined to revoke their open bails, but did hold Campbell pending a surrender hearing for allegedly violating the terms of a probationary term imposed in May following his admissions in a Dorchester drug case.

“We know every gun arrest averts potential violence, but the evidence here suggests a very strong likelihood that one or both of these defendants was about to commit a shooting,” Conley said. “Someone was going to get seriously hurt or worse. Based on the intelligence they received and the observations they made, the officers acted appropriately and our prosecutor made the right call in asking for high bail.”

Boston Police on Friday afternoon received information about an apparent argument between two men in a white Audi A4 and two other men standing outside an Oakhurst Street residence. After that altercation, the Audi had sped off and the two men on foot left the area.

A short time later, police learned, the Audi returned to Oakhurst, slowed down as if looking for someone, and circled the block twice more before leaving.

Aware of multiple calls for shootings and shots fired in the area, Boston Police set up surveillance in the area. During that surveillance, they saw the Audi return to Oakhurst Street at about 6:30 p.m. The Audi slowed to a stop in the area of the earlier confrontation and its occupants appeared to the officers to be looking for someone.

In light of the earlier altercation and the Audi’s repeated returns to the scene, as well as the recent history of gun violence in the area, Boston Police stopped the Audi near the intersection of Norfolk and Epping streets. When asked for his license and registration, Campbell was allegedly extremely nervous and his hands were shaking uncontrollably. When asked where he had just come from, Campbell allegedly stated that he was returning from his mother’s house on Norfolk Street, which the officers knew to be untrue. In conversation with Bramwell-Elliott, who was in the passenger’s seat, the officers observed him to be extremely nervous also.

Both men were directed out of the car and pat-frisked for weapons. Officers also checked the immediate vicinity of their respective positions inside the car and soon recovered a .45 caliber semiautomatic Hi-Point Model JHC handgun loaded with eight rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, ready to fire. Recovered from the center console were small quantities of marijuana and crack cocaine, both in plastic bags.

In a gun case unrelated to Bramwell-Elliott’s and Campbell’s, RICARDO FIELDS (D.O.B. 10/8/81) of Dorchester was convicted last week of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, and unlawfully carrying a loaded firearm after a three-day jury trial in Suffolk Superior Court led by Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Goldberger of Conley’s Special Prosecutions Unit. The case arose after Fields’ 2010 arrest as one of four men in a car from which a loaded Taurus .32 Special semiautomatic handgun had been tossed during a chase; a co-defendant and fellow passenger in the car, TYRONE SEAMS (D.O.B. 3/6/86), was acquitted.

In a second set of proceedings, Goldberger also proved that Fields had Suffolk County gun convictions from 2003 and 2006 for which he served 18 months and two and a half years respectively, and three prior assault and battery convictions from 2004 for which he served terms of up to 14 months. In light of those convictions, Goldberger recommended that he serve 12 to 13 years in state prison. Judge Elizabeth Donovan sentenced him to 10 years in prison plus two and a half years in jail to be suspended for one year upon his release.

“Police and prosecutors in 2003, 2004, and 2006 didn’t know those convictions would one day be predicate offenses supporting a decade-long prison term,” Conley said. “We achieved this result not just because of the actions and decisions on this case, but also the actions and decisions made every time this defendant was brought before the court.”

Bramwell-Elliott was represented by attorney Frances Anna Brickman and Campbell by attorney Matthew Luz. Both will return to court on Aug. 29. Fields was represented by attorney Steven Sack.