A 34-year-old Eugene man has been charged with pointing an air rifle at a Register-Guard newspaper carrier.

The carrier was delivering papers on Mangan Street in west Eugene around 5 a.m. Sunday when a man, identified by Eugene police as Lance Edwin Rictor, who does not receive the paper, came out of his house to confront the carrier.

The carrier said he uses a flashlight to do his job and works quickly to get the papers delivered in the dark. The carrier never crossed Rictor's property and has never seen him before, he said. But Rictor approached the carrier and began yelling at him, demanding to know what the carrier was doing. Rictor followed the carrier on foot as he delivered the rest of the papers in that neighborhood, yelling and threatening him.

The carrier said Rictor told him, "Too bad for you now, I know who you are now." Rictor allegedly threatened the carrier not to come back. The carrier said he believed Rictor was targeting him because of his race — the carrier is Hispanic — noting that Rictor had a Confederate flag hanging out front, a symbol often associated with racism but also seen by some as a display of southern heritage.

The following morning, after the carrier reported the incident to his supervisor, the carrier was driven to the neighborhood by another employee, who stayed in the car as the carrier delivered his papers.

Once they got to Mangan Street, the carrier got out of the car to deliver the papers, and Rictor allegedly came outside holding the air rifle and pointed it at the carrier.

The carrier jumped back in the car and laid down in the back seat, he said.

"I was just yelling, 'Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness,'" the carrier recalled Wednesday. "And then I heard a shot."

They contacted police about the incident.

According to Eugene police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin, police used an armored car to respond to the incident Monday.

Officers arrived to find Rictor in the street carrying the involved air rifle. Police officers told Rictor to get on the ground and he initially complied. However, at some point he popped back up and started advancing toward police officers, McLaughlin said. Rictor failed to follow instructions but eventually got back onto his stomach and was warned not to reach for his rifle.

Police arrested Rictor and found he had a handgun in his waistband, despite not having a concealed handgun license.

Rictor is charged with two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, two counts of menacing and a single count of possession of a firearm.

He remains incarcerated at the Lane County Jail.