DENVER -- A Denver police detective was charged with felony menacing Tuesday by the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office following an Aug. 29 incident in which the officer is alleged to have waved a weapon at another motorist and her son.

Detective Michael Ryan was suspended without pay following news of the formal charge being filed. He had been on desk duty with pay during the investigation.

Christine Frappied told Jefferson County authorities that she was driving her 11-year-old son on Hampden Avenue, just west of Wadsworth Boulevard, when she noticed a large pickup truck tailgating her. She said she tapped her brake to try and get the truck to back off.

Frappied said the pickup driver made an obscene gesture with his finger and then drove to the driver's side of her Volkswagen Beetle and yelled something at her. She said a cup of ice was thrown out the window at him.

She called 911 on her cell phone after her son noticed the driver of the pickup had pulled a gun out and was displaying it.

Frappied got the license plate number of the truck and gave that to the dispatcher. Deputies eventually spotted the pickup further west on U.S. Highway 285 near Aspen Park.

Deputies said Ryan, 41, was driving the pickup and told them he had just gotten off work in Denver and was on his way home.

Prosecutors said Frappied, 34, was charged with a misdemeanor count of throwing objects at a vehicle. An investigation revealed that Frappied wasn't actually driving. Christine Neona Urioste-Smedley, 55, was issued a summons for driving the Frappied vehicle with a license that was under restraint, prosecutors said.