Vernon Barrett Jr, 25, was charged with child endangerment and inducing panic on Saturday in Boardman, Ohio
A father who chased his six-year-old daughter around the neighborhood wearing a creepy clown mask was shot at by a neighbor.
Dad Vernon Barrett Jr, 25, was charged with child endangerment and inducing panic when his bizarre plan to scare his daughter into good behavior went awry on Saturday in Boardman, Ohio.
Barrett, who told police the child’s mother is currently in jail for child endangerment after she stepped on the girl and broke several ribs, said his daughter had been misbehaving at school and at home.
‘Barrett said that he decided to use the clown mask into scaring her to behave,’ responding officer Joseph O’Grady wrote in an incident report obtained by the Washington Post.
Shortly before 10pm, the terrified little girl jumped into a stranger’s car and said she was being chased by a clown.
Barrett, wearing the clown mask, approached and yanked the girl out of the car, the woman inside told police after calling 911 to report the shocking encounter.
Before police could arrive, the girl fled her creepy pursuer by running into the apartment of 48-year-old Dion Santiago.
‘Santiago turned off the lights and looked out his apartment window and observed Barrett standing outside of the building with a clown mask on,’ the report said.
Dion Santiago, 48, was charged with using a weapon while intoxicated
Santiago pulled out a gun and fired a warning shot toward the ground, which did not strike Barrett, police said.
When Officer O’Grady arrived, Barrett was still wearing the mask and the two men were yelling at each other as the girl huddled in terror in the apartment, refusing to come out.
‘I attempted to tell [the girl] that it was okay and that it was her father,’ O’Grady wrote. ‘However, [she] ran into the back bedroom of the apartment.’
Santiago, who had been drinking a few beers, was charged with use of a weapon while intoxicated.
His family defended his actions though, saying that fears of a resurgence of creepy clowns following the release of the movie It had heightened his alarm.
‘Santiago’s son… said due to the news and Internet coverage of people dressed as clowns chasing people he got nervous and scared when he looked outside the window and saw a man with a clown mask on,’ the police report stated.
The child was placed in the custody of Barrett’s girlfriend while he was detained.
Both Barrett and Santiago are expected in court Tuesday at 8.30am.