He is Ezekiel Sims and the Wikipedia entry might give more background on the original character, although he has been chopped and changed so much he is almost unrecognisable.
The reason the character is so one dimensional is that they radically changed the story (why cast members have been so happy to throw it under the bus, as what we saw wasn't what they signed up for) and we'd have got more of his motivation. As the character is key to some of the big storylines and lore upgrades, he might have also helped set up future films. Instead they still seem intent on killing the franchise, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because a Spidey-less Spider-Man fictional universe is a stupid idea, badly implemented.