DENVER (AP) – Prosecutors filed a felony assault charge Monday against a CIA contractor accused of getting into a fight over a parking space in Colorado months after he was involved in a fatal shootout in Pakistan.

Raymond Davis, 37, was arrested Saturday after an altercation outside a bagel shop in Highlands Ranch, a community south of Denver where he lives.

Davis has not yet entered a plea. His defense attorney, William Frankfurt, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Authorities have released few details about the fight and did not identify the other person involved.

KUSA-TV said two drivers wanted the same spot in a crowded parking lot. One driver pulled up behind the other, rolled down a window and began shouting, and the confrontation escalated into a physical fight, the station reported.

In January, Davis said he shot two Pakistani men who tried to rob him in Lahore. The case enraged many in the country, where anti-American sentiment runs high.

The U.S. insisted Davis had immunity from prosecution, but he was not released until March 16 under a deal in which the victims’ families agreed to accept $2.34 million in “blood money” under Islamic tradition.

Pakistan’s security agencies came under intense domestic criticism for freeing Davis.

Davis was charged with second-degree assault-crime of violence. If convicted, he could face a possible prison term of five to 16 years.

He was originally arrested on suspicion of a lesser charge of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor. That charge carries a possible penalty of six to 18 months in a county jail.

District attorney’s spokeswoman Casimir Spencer said prosecutors opted for the more serious charge because it was appropriate. She declined to elaborate.

Davis also faces a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, which carries a sentence of up to six months in county jail.

Davis appeared Monday in a court in Castle Rock, south of Denver. He was free on $1,750 bond and expected to return to court for another hearing Tuesday.

- By Dan Elliott, AP Writer

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)