A Baltimore city police officer delivered the fright of a lifetime to a haunted house employee, pulling a gun on the chainsaw-wielding man at the end of his act, authorities said on Monday.

Sergeant Eric Janik, 37, was charged with assault and reckless endangerment for pointing his service handgun at the worker, who was dressed as Leatherface, the killer from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", Baltimore County police said.

The employee, Mike Morrison, followed Janik and several other people up a staircase Sunday night at the end of the haunted house tour in a bid to get "one last scream" out of them, police said.

When the group exited into a parking lot, Janik pulled his gun and pointed it at Morrison from less than three metres away, according to police and Morrison, who said he dropped the chainsaw, put his hands up and backed away. The saw had no chain.

Only then did Janik identify himself as a police officer, said Morrison, who retreated into the building.

"I started shaking pretty bad," he said.

Another employee of the House of Screams called police.

According to charging documents, Janik smelled of alcohol and told police two different stories about what he did with the gun. First, he denied drawing the weapon but later he said he pointed it at the ground.

Morrison and two other witnesses told police that Janik pointed the gun at Morrison's chest.

AP

^ Do you have the link?

Great move. Let's drink, bring a gun to an event that is not dangerous (at least till he pulled the gun), and completely overreact.

Given his position, and the responsibilities that go with it, he should be handed termination papers.

Another link:

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/21430106/detail.html

This is stupid. I don't care if he was an off duty cop, or a regular person, if you go to a haunted house, expect to be scared, and the possibility to be followed out of the house. This guy should be fired, and have his concealed weapon permit revoked, along with the charges brought against him.

This is one of the things that I don't like about working at a haunted house, the drunks. At Dent, we don't serve alcohol, so people get drunk, commit DUI driving to the house, then come in and act like fools. I am a firm believer that haunts should be allowed to do alcohol testing on patrons, and if they fail, they don't come in.

Just my thoughts, not put into actual practice.