The man in a Nov. 19 gunfire and “barricade incident” in East Cambridge was identified Friday as he was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court.

Miguel A. Lorenzo, 31, of Malden, was arrested Thursday at his home without incident on an outstanding warrant out of the court, then arraigned Friday on possession of a firearm without a license as an armed career criminal; possession of ammunition without a license as an armed career criminal; carrying a loaded firearm; discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling; and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.

What exactly happened on Sciarappa Street between Charles and Spring streets has been left vague by police, who at the time described an “active barricade situation” with a man they believed had a gun and, they suggested, a hostage. Officers responded on the report of gunshots at 2:12 a.m., evacuated the building of other residents “safely,” according to a Friday press release, and even asked residents in the surrounding area to shelter in place, using emergency phone alerts a little after 5:30 a.m.

“Officers tried to communicate with the defendant, including via loudspeaker, to peacefully deescalate the situation,” police recapped on Friday, without saying what the situation was.

A man later identified as Lorenzo is believed to have fired a gun on Sciarappa Street – ballistic evidence was recovered on the ground nearby, police said – and entered a building there, but the only weapon mentioned last month or Friday was a “loaded firearm … recovered from the bed of a truck parked outside the residence.” 

In the Friday press release from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, Cambridge acting police commissioner Christine Elow and Malden police chief Kevin Molis, there’s no narrative to explain why police were involved in an “extended standoff situation” between 2:12 and 6:30 a.m. with a man who had no weapon or hostage. No one was injured during the incident, police said.

A request has been made to Jeremy Warnick, director of communications and media relations for Cambridge police, to make such points more clear, as police in recent years tend to give only cryptic details that resist being formed into a coherent series of events, sometimes begging the question of why police release some information at all. In May 2020, police commissioner Branville G. Bard Jr. told city councillors of “a marked increase in child pornography cases. In the last eight weeks, we’ve seen what we typically see in six months worth of cases,” then declined to explain what he meant or what the public was meant to take away from the information or do with it.

These are the first charges filed against Lorenzo for the four-hour incident on Nov. 19, when police detained him for questions but released him. “Charges in this case were pursued [Thursday] once evidence recovered on-scene was processed and further investigative efforts were conducted. This provided the probable cause to move ahead and secure the arrest warrant,” Warnick said Friday.

Assistant clerk magistrate Daniel Flaherty ordered Lorenzo to be held without bail until a dangerousness hearing set for 2 p.m. Tuesday.