BATON ROUGE - Police have arrested a Baton Rouge man accused of repeatedly threatening a state trooper during a traffic stop late Wednesday morning.

According to Louisiana State Police, 42-year-old Melvin Amar Jr. was pulled over on Gardere Lane near Burbank Drive after a trooper spotted him driving his truck without a license plate. Once the officer began speaking to Amar, he became visibly agitated and began shouting threats.

The trooper says Amar made several verbal threats and made a hand gesture depicting a gun directed at the officer, prompting him to take Amar into custody.

From the backseat of the police unit, Amar allegedly continued to bark vulgar statements about the trooper and his family, even referencing a deadly 2016 ambush which killed three Baton Rouge lawmen.

Amar was taken to the East Baton Rouge Parish Jail where it was discovered he was in possession of marijuana and Xanax. He was booked on charges including simple assault, public intimidation, introducing contraband into a penal facility, drug possession and several traffic violations.