Pittsburgh police over the weekend cited a man in Lawrenceville after witnesses said he caused a scene near a Wendy's restaurant by waving around a pistol that turned out to be an Airsoft-style pellet gun that looks like the real thing.

Police cited Andrew Scott Zevola, 19, on Saturday after finding him in the Wendy's parking lot at 40th and Butler streets with the gun in his pocket.

A University of Pittsburgh police officer and a man selling flowers on 40th Street both said Mr. Zevola was "waving a firearm around and causing alarm to the public," police said.

Police said the incident drew a crowd to the scene. Mr. Zevola was cited for disorderly conduct and violating a city ordinance against carrying a facsimile of a gun.

Last week a 10-year-old Georgia boy was shot in the face with one while ice-skating at PPG Plaza, and police received at least two other reports that day of similar shootings.

Airsoft guns and their competitors are designed to look like real firearms, but they fire plastic BBs that sting.