The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: tombogan03884 on October 28, 2009, 10:59:58 PM
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Cop accused of pulling gun at haunted house
BEN NUCKOLS,Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
ESSEX, Maryland (AP) — A Baltimore city police officer delivered the fright of a lifetime to a haunted house employee, pulling a gun on the chain-saw-wielding man at the end of his act, authorities said Monday.
Sgt. 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 10 feet (three meters) away, according to police and Morrison, who said he dropped the chain saw, 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 told The Associated Press.
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.
Janik had no listed number and a voice mail for his attorney, Shaun Owens, was not immediately returned.
A security guard had been following Janik's group, which included his 9-year-old daughter, through the haunted house because Janik appeared to be drunk when he arrived, House of Screams owner Tony Sapanero said.
Morrison said Janik's daughter appeared to be disturbed by his act, in which he pretends to cut one woman in half and disembowel another with the chain saw.
Janik was suspended with pay after police commanders learned of what happened and could be without pay after a hearing Tuesday morning, city police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
City police officers are required to carry their service weapons while off duty within city limits and can carry them at their own discretion outside the city, Guglielmi said.
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suspend with pay... sorry, thats fired on the spot. not suspended with pay.
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This story can't be legit. There's no reference to donuts. Oh wait... They did mention that alcohol may have been a factor. Yeah. It's prob'ly real. ;D
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suspend with pay... sorry, thats fired on the spot. not suspended with pay.
Here in MD there is a "LE Bill of Rights" at the state level that says no matter what while under investigation that's what you get. As soon as the investigation is over though...
It's in place to protect the officers that do the right thing but still have to face charges (officer involved shooting), allegations that may or may not be true (harassment, use of force), and unfortunately the criminally stupid (pulling a gun at a haunted house drunk)
Possibly another example of departments lowering standards to increase staff? Uncle Sam passes out grant money to pay for more cops and the only way to get them on the streets fast enough to keep the money is to cut corners in training and selection. Ask Miami how well that works. They looked the other way on criminal records in the 80s and hired a bunch of thugs. The Feds discovered that MOST of a precict's officers were running a drug trafficing ring and extortion from the station.
When I was part of the Firearms Staff for NAS Lemoore we had more than a few new kids show up with great scores from A School (Academy-ish) that couldn't hit the side of an aircraft carrier with a shotgun. They were pushed through training and didn't really use live weapons for most of the training cycle. Luckily we had plenty of unarmed jobs in the deprtment. We also had a kid get stupid and pull a gun on another MAA at a party. Because we were undermanned and all the paperwork involved in pulling his rate (job/mos) they just pulled his gun and he worked in dispatch for a year.
A security guard had been following Janik's group, which included his 9-year-old daughter, through the haunted house because Janik appeared to be drunk when he arrived, House of Screams owner Tony Sapanero said.
I had to read that line twice, the first time I saw Tony Sorprano and wondered why the mob would want to have a haunted house in BMore.
???
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Booz and CCW - bad combination. :(
If he weren't drunk, I like to think he'd have had enough brains to not draw.
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Booz and CCW - bad combination. :(
If he weren't drunk, I like to think he'd have had enough brains to not draw.
I'd like to think that if he were planning on drinking he'd have enough brains to leave the gun in the glove box (and let someone else drive).
FQ13
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Here in MD there is a "LE Bill of Rights" at the state level that says no matter what while under investigation that's what you get. As soon as the investigation is over though...
It's in place to protect the officers that do the right thing but still have to face charges (officer involved shooting), allegations that may or may not be true (harassment, use of force), and unfortunately the criminally stupid (pulling a gun at a haunted house drunk)
Possibly another example of departments lowering standards to increase staff? Uncle Sam passes out grant money to pay for more cops and the only way to get them on the streets fast enough to keep the money is to cut corners in training and selection. Ask Miami how well that works. They looked the other way on criminal records in the 80s and hired a bunch of thugs. The Feds discovered that MOST of a precict's officers were running a drug trafficing ring and extortion from the station.
When I was part of the Firearms Staff for NAS Lemoore we had more than a few new kids show up with great scores from A School (Academy-ish) that couldn't hit the side of an aircraft carrier with a shotgun. They were pushed through training and didn't really use live weapons for most of the training cycle. Luckily we had plenty of unarmed jobs in the deprtment. We also had a kid get stupid and pull a gun on another MAA at a party. Because we were undermanned and all the paperwork involved in pulling his rate (job/mos) they just pulled his gun and he worked in dispatch for a year.
I had to read that line twice, the first time I saw Tony Sorprano and wondered why the mob would want to have a haunted house in BMore.
???
while on the job I agree, but off duty, they should have no protection. Its the with pay thing that really ticks me off. In this case it was not so much him pulling his weapon, its him lieing about it. You can bet, every time he is in court, this will be brought up. Which hurts his creditablity. The way I see things, with his creditabilty in court in question, he can no longer do his job. Since he can no longer do his job, he should be fired.
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I'm going to hold out for more info on this one, if it turns out, alcohol was involved, then Adios. There is such a thing as being too good at something, if the show was SUPPOSED, to be over, and the finale done by chainsaw man occurred, what would you do? comes into effect. If the show was really good, you will probably walk out looking over your shoulder.
Law enforcement is held to a different standard than us, and for a very good reason, they deal with low lifes everyday, and they all have a story of woe, that defends their actions. LEO's are also trained to be wary of any situation, they are showed training films, based on history of cops being killed by a wife with a fork, because they were called in on a domestic violence beef, and although the hubbie was beating the lady down, she won't give up on her man, and let him be taken away, even though she made the call.
I went through a pretty cool haunted house, enjoyed it until I watched a guy in the strobe light feel my girlfriend up, he got a gut check, I would bet he probably still remembers. I hope every Halloween ;)
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I think if he hadn't been drunk he may (Keyword MAY) not have drawn on "Leatherface." But If he was drinking HE SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE GUN LOCKED UP AND LET SOMEONE ELSE DRIVE! Things like this are one of the reasons I don't drink.
Of course, I also don't care for haunted houses myself. I'm a little Jumpy as is. Comes partly from being the guy who was picked on the most in school.