Man arrested after alleged gun threat in parking lot

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. » A 26-year-old Saugerties man was arrested after he pointed what appeared to be a gun at another person during a confrontation in a restaurant parking lot, police said Tuesday.

Eduardo L. Trujillo, of 40 Valley St., was charged Monday with the misdemeanors of criminal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and menacing, the Saugerties Police Department said. He then was taken to HealthAlliance Hospital’s Mary’s Avenue Campus in Kingston for a psychiatric evaluation, police said.

Police said Ulster County 911 received several calls reporting an altercation at the Hot Rocks Steak House on U.S. Route 9W in Saugerties and that one of the men in the altercation, later identified as Trujillo, reportedly retrieved a hand gun from a vehicle in the parking lot and was pointing it at another person. Police that said when officers arrived, Trujillo was trying was to leave but they stopped him.

Witnesses said Trujillo was in the restaurant and was asked to leave the premises by staff members after making inappropriate comments and acting strangely, police said. Police said Trujillo yelled out in the restaurant and then went into the parking lot. As several patrons left the restaurant, Trujillo confronted one, police said.

Police said Trujillo at one point reportedly went to his vehicle and retrieved a handgun. Witnesses said he began waving the gun around and pointing it at the person he had confronted, police said.

After he was stopped by police, Trujillo became verbally abusive to officers, spit on them and became physically confrontational, police said. Police said Trujillo was taken into custody following a brief struggle.

A search of Trujillo’s vehicle resulted in the discovery of a pellet gun replica of a Berretta 92F 9mm semiautomatic handgun, police said.