PORT TOWNSEND — The local Safeway store went into a brief security lockdown Saturday after a man with a pellet gun alarmed customers and sparked a police response.
Police received a report of a man with a handgun in a car parked outside at about 1 p.m. at the Safeway at 442 W. Sims Way.
The report said that a man was loading a handgun with ammunition while sitting in a pickup truck in the parking lot, police said Sunday.
As part of the response, officers requested store management place Safeway into a security lockdown to keep customers safe inside.
Officer Bill Corrigan saw a man holding a black semiautomatic-style pistol on the steering wheel with the barrel pointed up, saw the man make a motion to insert a magazine into the gun and then saw him cycle a bullet into the chamber, police said.
Corrigan and Officer Sherry Erickson approached the car with their guns drawn and ordered the man out of the vehicle.
The man cooperated, and the officers determined the handgun was a pellet gun modeled after a .45 caliber Colt semi-automatic pistol.
The 26-year-old Port Townsend man, whom police did not identify, said that he was a store employee on a lunch break trying out the gun, which he said he had recently purchased.
He is not facing charges, and the matter was referred to store management, police said.
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
