Michael J. Anderson was in no mood to negotiate late Monday night.

The 25-year-old Ephrata man had guzzled 13 bottles of beer, knocked a picture frame from the wall and argued violently with his wife and father, police say.

So when a cop showed up outside his Duke Street home around 11:15 p.m., what did Anderson do?

He stepped out onto his front porch, reached into his waistband, pulled out a shiny silver handgun — and pointed it directly at the policeman, authorities say.

"Put the gun down!" shouted the officer, who drew his own pistol in the pitch of night.

But Anderson wouldn't listen.

So the officer, training his service weapon at Anderson from 25 feet away, fired three bullets — missing each time as his target collapsed to the ground in fear.

The officer, whom the department would not identify, subdued Anderson and seized his pistol — which turned out to be nothing more than a pellet gun, Ephrata Lt. Thomas Shumaker said this morning.

Police today charged Anderson, of 255 Duke St., with aggravated assault, making terroristic threats and recklessly endangering another person.

He was arraigned mid-morning before Magisterial District Judge Jene A. Willwerth in Ephrata, who set bail at $200,000.

Anderson could not post bail and was taken to Lancaster County Prison. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19.

The incident was the first in at least a decade and a half in which a borough police officer was forced to fire his weapon at a suspect, Shumaker said. "I've been here 16 years and this is the first I'm aware of," he said.

The officer who fired the shots has been placed on administrative leave as the department reviews the matter, a move that is routine when an officer discharges his weapon while on duty, Shumaker said.

The shouting and gunfire startled, but did not surprise, many residents of the 200 block of Duke Street, which is a short walk from downtown Ephrata. In interviews with the New Era, they said crime is rampant there.

"This is an going problem that's escalating now. We've handed over to the police a video of kids doing drugs. They're actually doing lines of cocaine in cars right in front of our house," said Penny Gorens, 42, who has lived on the 200 block of Duke Street for five years.

"This is the last straw. I'm moving,"  Gorens said. "Last night, after I went to bed, I heard glass shattering, broken glass. I didn't think anything of it because that's normal in this neighborhood."

Shumaker, speaking at a news conference this morning, said two of the bullets traveled a quarter-block and struck the facade of the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition, at 287 Duke St. One of the slugs broke a window, and the other chipped a sign hanging near the front door.

The third bullet struck an outside barrier wall at Anderson's home, where he lives with his father, Howard, and wife, Amy.

Carolee Clark, 48, who also lives on the 200 block of Duke Street, said she was startled from her sleep.

"I heard somebody yelling the word,  'No!,'" said Clark, who moved to Ephrata 12 years ago from Los Angeles. "I woke up out of a sound sleep, and I asked my husband, 'What the h--- was that?'

"He said, 'That sounded like gunshots.' I remember my husband saying it sounded like three gunshots. The yelling came after the gunshots. There was other yelling but it was muffled."

An elderly woman who lives on the block and did not want to be identified said she, too, was awakened by commotion. "It sounded just like firecrackers at the Fourth of July," she said.

Shumaker said Anderson had begun drinking Monday between 4 and 5 p.m. He had consumed 13 bottled of beer when his wife called police, at 11:14 p.m. Police will use a toxicology test performed on Anderson to see if he was legally drunk at the time.

The lieutenant described the officer as a 4- to 5-year veteran of the force. Shumaker said Anderson's weapon, now being stored as evidence, looks like a semiautomatic handgun.

"It looked very real to me," he said.

Shumaker said the officer's line of fire was partially obstructed by porch posts, railings and a wall outside the home. Still, when the gunfire ended, both Anderson and the officer were stunned the bullets had missed the mark.

In fact, the only injury Anderson sustained was a cut to his left hand from punching the picture frame earlier in the night, police said. "He actually thanked the officer for not shooting him," Shumaker said.

CONTACT US: tmurse@LNPnews.com or 481-6021