He threatened a girl over stolen cash, police say. He had no explanation for carrying a BB gun

A 19-year-old man allegedly held a gun at his side while threatening a teen girl with a beating if she didn’t return stolen money.

Alexis G. Ayala later denied pointing the gun at the teen and her friend on Saturday night, and said he was only holding it so it wouldn’t fall out of the waistband of his shorts while walking, according to court documents.

The gun turned over to Pasco officers actually was a black, plastic BB gun made to look like a real handgun.

Asked why he had a realistic BB gun in his pants, Ayala told police “he did not know and sometimes simply carries it there,” documents said.

The Othello man was arrested on suspicion of second-degree assault and first-degree extortion, both felonies.

A Franklin County Superior Court judge, in finding probable cause to hold Ayala, set bail at $2,500.

The teen girl and her mother called police about 1 1/2 hours after the incident near the Metro Mart at Lewis Street and 10th Avenue.

The girl said she and a friend were in the convenience store buying food at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when a man walked in after them and left before them. The girls were walking back to a nearby house when they heard someone calling to them to stop, and then a car pulled up next to them.

The guy who got out of the car was the same man who had been in the Metro Mart, and was later identified as Ayala, court documents said.

The teen reported that a female acquaintance believes the girl stole money from her, and she repeatedly has insisted she did not and to leave her alone. That acquaintance was in the passenger seat of Ayala’s car.

Ayala allegedly pulled the gun from his waistband and held it while telling the girl not to move and to hand over the money.

The girl said she became scared, screamed “He has a gun” and started to cry.

She added that before Ayala left, he said the girl “better pay up because (the acquaintance) is in the car and wants to beat her a--,” documents said.

The teen’s friend gave a similar story to police, adding that she thought Ayala pointed the gun at her friend’s stomach.

When an officer called the acquaintance who was in Ayala’s car, she “became very confrontational and defensive” and hung up after saying she would not help police, court documents said.

On a second phone call, the acquaintance said she had $40 stolen by the teen and she wanted to recover it. She added that the gun was only a pellet pistol, but if it had been real “she would’ve shot those two (expletive),” documents said.

She agreed to talk with officers in person, and showed up at the police station with Ayala at 12:45 a.m. Sunday. She produced the BB gun, which police described as an imitation of a 1911 handgun.

Ayala explained that he did not know the girls in the convenience store, but his friend said they owed her money so he asked to talk with them.

He admitted telling the teen girl to “watch yourself” and said he was just trying to help recover his friend’s stolen cash, documents said.

Police said they arrested Ayala because the girls believed the gun was real and were afraid for their lives with his alleged threat of force.