NEAR WEST TOWN — A man pulled a gun on bicyclists during Friday's Critical Mass ride Downtown, officials said.
The man was disarmed by officers and no one was injured, police said. Critical Mass is an event where dozens of bicyclists ride together Downtown on the last Friday of every month.
At 7:52 p.m., officers were in the 800 block of West Jackson Boulevard when they saw a man, Alexander Doty, get out of his car and get a gun from his trunk, police said.
Doty went back to the driver's side door his car, where officers stopped him, took away the loaded gun and arrested him, police said.
Bicyclists posted about the incident on The Chainlink, a popular bicycling forum and community. One wrote seeing a bicyclist riding in the group sit down on the driver's hood, leading to the confrontation, while others praised nearby officers for quickly disarming the man.
"It could have ended badly in many, many ways, but thankfully it didn't," one poster wrote. "The police did a stand-up job! I'm glad that it went like it did, and no one fired a shot."
Doty, 25, of the 8400 block of South Maryland Avenue, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon for having a loaded gun and no FOID card, police said.
Critical Mass could not immediately be reached for comment, but in a post on Facebook the organization said it had "learned a lot."
"We also need to work harder to structure the ride in a way that is safer for everyone," the group wrote. "Swarming cars always leads to freak outs, and we are living in a new reality where more and more people are carrying weapons."
