Saturday evening after Boston Police officers were hit with an “unknown” fluid from a squirt gun, they found a real gun in the suspect’s vehicle, police say.

The officers were conducting a traffic stop, when a vehicle drove past them and one of the occupants shot liquid from a squirt gun, striking one of the officers, the Boston PD said in a statement.

The officer told his partner that a vehicle drove by them and threw something toward them. They finished the traffic stop and went in search of the vehicle involved in the drive-by spraying.

Officers found the vehicle, stopped it, and contacted the occupants.

The front seat passenger stated to officers that he meant to scare them, police say. Officers advised the occupants that they had interfered with a traffic stop and requested their identifications. “Officers observed the front passenger to lean forward and requested him to sit up straight in order to be able to see his hands.”

Officers ordered the front passenger to exit the vehicle. The officers then conducted a pat frisk of the suspect, identified by police as Danyael Torres, 23, and recovered a Taurus PT111 Millennium handgun from his waistband, police say.

Torres was placed under arrest and charged with assault and battery on a police officer, unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition.

A squirt gun was found inside the vehicle. The remaining occupants were promptly released from the scene, police say.