IRON MOUNTAIN — An Iowa man is in custody after reportedly spraying a hotel clerk with Mace when she asked him to don a face mask, then leading police on a slow-speed chase north on U.S. 2, public safety officials said.

The Iron Mountain Police Department received a report at 4:25 p.m. Friday that the clerk at the Comfort Inn had been assaulted with Mace, with the man still sitting in his vehicle in the hotel parking lot, according to a news release by Ed Mattson, director of the Iron Mountain Police and Fire Departments.

As officers approached the vehicle, the man appeared to be holding a handgun. He was told to drop the weapon and get out of the vehicle but instead drove out of the lot headed north on U.S. 2.

The slow-speed pursuit ended near the area of Riverside Auto, N3696 U.S. 2, after the Michigan State Police deployed “spike strips.” The man threw the weapon, later determined to be a BB gun, out of the vehicle onto the roadway while being chased.

The 41-year-old man is in the Dickinson County Correctional Center in Iron Mountain pending formal charges by Dickinson County Prosecutor Lisa Richards, Mattson stated in the release.