Mar. 10—Reading police arrested a 21-year-old old man at gunpoint in a pharmacy drive-thru shortly after he drew a handgun on another driver, who happened to be a city police officer, during a road-rage confrontation Thursday afternoon, officials said.

Reynaldo Alberto Jr. of the 700 block of North 11th Street was charged with aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment and related offenses after the incident Thursday afternoon in the 200 block of Schuylkill Avenue.

He remained free to await a hearing following arraignment before District Justice Gail M. Greth in Reading Central Court.

Investigators provided this account in the criminal complaint:

The officer, who was not named but was referred to as the victim, was traveling south on Schuylkill Avenue toward North Front Street in an unmarked police vehicle when he slowed down because he heard a siren.

He saw an ambulance northbound on Front across Schuylkill Avenue.

Alberto was in a sedan behind the officer's vehicle and was honking the horn and shouting for the officer to move his vehicle.

The officer told investigators he saw Alberto get out of the car with his hand inside the front pocket of his sweatshirt. The officer said he got out of his vehicle and, while displaying his badge, identified himself as a police officer and asked Alberto to calm down.

Alberto reportedly replied he didn't care about that and pulled a handgun from his sweatshirt pocket, pointing the barrel to the ground.

The officer wasn't in full uniform and wasn't wearing a ballistic vest. Fearing he would be shot, he fled to his vehicle and called police dispatch.

Alberto returned to his car and drove onto Front Street, then east on Walnut Street. The officer gave his direction of travel to North Sixth Street, where he pulled into the pharmacy lot and the drive-thru.

Alberto was standing between the open car door and the store wall when the responding officers took him into custody at gunpoint.

Police removed from Alberto's pocket a handgun loaded with 14 rounds of 9 mm ammunition. Three other magazines for the gun holding a total of 65 rounds were found in the car when police searched it for weapons.