Butler police Sunday night chased and tackled a 23-year-old city man suspected of wielding a firearm.

Moments earlier, the suspect had pointed the gun at a woman at a West Jefferson Street apartment building, police said.

Officers later recovered the firearm, which turned out to be a pellet gun.

“It’s an identical replica of a real gun,” said police Lt. James Hollobaugh, who helped in the arrest of Nathan D. Cornetti.

No one was injured but Cornetti landed in the Butler County Prison on two counts of aggravated assault and charges of terroristic threats and resisting arrest.

Police allege the defendant shortly after 10 p.m. first displayed the pellet gun after accosting a 22-year-old man on Jackson Street.

“(Cornetti) told him, ‘You’re coming with me and if you don’t I’m going to shoot,’” Hollobaugh said.

Investigators said the defendant and the other man, who they would not immediately identify, were acquainted with one another but not friends.

The other man was “terrified,” Hollobaugh said, and accompanied Cornetti to an apartment building in the 100 block of West Jefferson Street.

The building houses a restaurant on the ground floor and at least seven apartments upstairs. The suspect went to an upstairs apartments looking for an unknown man, whose name he repeatedly yelled out.

A 20-year-old woman who lives in one of the apartments heard the commotion and went into the hallway to see what was going on.

“She sees (Cornetti) waving the gun around,” Hollobaugh said. “He then points it at her.”

The woman remained composed, the officer said, and advised the armed man she was calling police.

The defendant and the 22-year-old man ran away before splitting up. Police first caught up to the other man at Main and North streets.

After speaking to him, Hollobaugh said, police determined he was a crime victim, not a suspect.

Minutes later, officers spotted the defendant crossing Main Street at Jefferson Street. Patrolmen Anthony Fatta and Justin Hixon ran after him.

During the chase, Cornetti allegedly pulled out his gun and Fatta had his service pistol drawn. At some point, the suspect dropped his gun.

Fatta eventually tackled Cornetti and Hixon moved in to help arrest the defendant. No one was injured.

“He was crying afterward,” Hollobaugh said of the suspect.

Cornetti was arraigned this morning and placed in Butler County prison on $25,000 bail.