An emotionally distraught man walking North Shore alleyways with what appeared to be a rifle spooked residents Monday evening, leading to calls to the police.

RCMP spotted the man at Library Square off Willow Street shortly after 8 p.m.

The 22-year-old Kamloops man told police he had a pellet gun inside his bag and showed it to them. He also admitted to recently drinking 26 ounces of liquor.

All the while, the man was “spontaneously sobbing,” according to RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant Learned.

“He was dealing with some emotional issues that were unprovoked,” he said. “There were probably other things going on there with him.”

The man was arrested for being drunk in a public place and held in cells until sober.

The police would have seized the pellet gun as a weapon dangerous to the public peace. But that wasn’t necessary once the man signed a relinquishment of claim form, which entitles the RCMP to take his pellet rifle for destruction.

“The gun itself is not illegal but the way he was carrying it from the evidence provided from the witness in a residential environment, etc., causing the lady to feel threatened, it would’ve been seized,” said Learned.

The man was released Tuesday morning without charges.