BOSTON, Aug. 13, 2013—An alleged career criminal was ordered held on high bail at his arraignment today after Boston Police spotted him allegedly firing a handgun at a motor vehicle, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

MICHAEL COKE (D.O.B. 3/25/75) of Roxbury was arraigned in Dorchester District Court on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm as a subsequent offense, unlawful possession of ammunition, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling. 

Coke was additionally charged as an armed career criminal based on prior convictions for unlawful firearm possession in 1997 and 2008 and prior convictions for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in 2001 and 2008.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Callahan requested that bail be set at $250,000 and that Coke be ordered to wear a GPS monitor and abide by a curfew if he is to be released.  Judge Rosalind Miller set bail at $200,000 and declined to impose the requested conditions.

According to prosecutors, Boston Police officers in a marked cruiser witnessed Coke fire shots at a moving vehicle in the area of Kingsdale and Wales streets shortly before 1:00 this morning.  The officers exited their cruiser and identified themselves as police, at which point Coke fled with the gun still in his possession, prosecutors said.

Officers ordered Coke to stop and drop the weapon.  Coke repeatedly refused to comply, and one officer discharged his weapon in Coke’s direction, prosecutors said. Coke was not struck and no one was injured.

Police apprehended Coke a short distance away and recovered a Taurus 9mm handgun loaded with one round in the chamber on top of a nearby building, prosecutors said.

Coke was represented by Nancy Hurley.  He will return to court on Sept. 6.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.