A Paterson 17-year-old has been arrested after he reportedly pointed a gun at police officers and fired it into the air.

The incident was caught on one of the city's surveillance cameras. It happened just after 3 a.m. Thursday in the area of Main and Mary streets. The video appears to show the teen in possession of a silver .45 caliber handgun that he shoots into the air.

Shortly after, the video shows Paterson Police Officer Michael Avilla and Sgt. Donato DeAngelis Jr. arrive on the scene and the teen can be seen running off. The two police officers give chase.

They say that during the chase, the teen pointed the gun at them and they were forced to take cover. They shouted at the teen to drop his gun, but he did not.

News 12 New Jersey is told that the chase continued and at one point the teen reportedly threw the gun up in the air and it landed on a rooftop.

Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale says that his officers showed incredible restraint by not shooting at the teen.

"Would they have been justified? Obviously they would have," says Speziale. "Imagine that motion, what it appears like when you're throwing something. He knows he's throwing it. The officers just see something that's being raised."

Sgt. DeAngelis was able to tackle the teen a short while later and arrested him.

With the current climate of police-involved shootings of black youth, Speziale says a maelstrom was avoided.

"We could be a doing different story. We could be doing a story about a 17-year-old juvenile that was shot in the city of Paterson by two Paterson police officers that could have enflamed the community," Speziale says. 

Police say that the .45 caliber was stolen. They add that they've been seeing this type of handgun more, which worries them because they are so high-powered.

The teen was charged with aggravated assault and obstruction of a governmental function.