The 28-year-old man who was arrested Friday at College Towers pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of inducing panic. Michael Sholtis, who lives in the apartment complex, has a pretrial hearing set for Nov. 24.

Sholtis, who said he was released at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, was reported to have threatened people with a weapon near the College Towers parking lot.

The weapon was a .177-caliber BB gun, according to a police report.

Lt. Jayme Cole of the Kent Police Department said the gun was a replica of a .45-caliber Colt hand gun, and he wasn’t surprised that Sholtis disagreed with the charge.

“People who get arrested typically don’t like it,” Cole said.

Sholtis said he thought police handled the situation incorrectly and that the threat was mistaken.

“This entire situation was just handled so poorly and wrong,” he said.

– Kelly Byer