PROVIDENCE — The city police have charged an employee of the Parks Department with felony assault as the result of an apparent incident of road rage.

Robert Kazarian, 51, of Johnston, was on duty driving a Providence parks truck when the incident occurred Tuesday afternoon. He allegedly got out of his truck, pulled open the driver’s side door of a car that was stopped in front of his truck on Dean Street at Kinsley Avenue, and repeatedly punched an elderly man behind the wheel.

That drew the attention of Steven O’Connell, 44, of 50 Pengrove St., Cranston, a truck driver, who yelled for Kazarian to stop. Kazarian then turned his attention to O’Connell, as the elderly man drove away. Kazarian took a swing at O’Connell and missed, according to O’Connell, and said that the elderly man had made an obscene gesture at him.

O’Connell told Kazarian that he was going to call 911, to which Kazarian supposedly replied, “I know every cop on the force.”

Kazarian allegedly went to the bed of his truck, retrieved a 4-foot-long bolt cutter and chased O’Connell down the street. Kazarian then concluded the incident, according to O’Connell, by taking a large metal object from his city truck and throwing it at O’Connell’s truck. A written police report did not say whether the object struck or damaged the truck.

Kazarian drove away but was followed by a female motorist who had seen what happened and called 911. At one point, while he was being followed, Kazarian got out of his truck again, on Federal Hill, and screamed at the woman.

Police officers went to the Parks Department, where they confiscated the bolt cutter. Kazarian was charged and released after a nighttime arraignment at the police station.

City government offices were closed yesterday and it could not be determined whether the charge would affect Kazarian’s job status.

Maj. Stephen Campbell said the police would like to interview the elderly man to complete their investigation.