Ohio man wearing clown mask chases daughter, shot fired

BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) – A father decided to prank his daughter by wearing a clown mask and chasing her, which resulted in a gunshot and charges against two Boardman men.

Vernon Barrett Jr. wore a clown mask and chased his six-year-old daughter from their apartment on Aravesta Avenue to an apartment on Lemans Drive on Saturday, according to Boardman Police.

According to a police report, a woman called police saying a child who was being chased by a masked man ran in front of her car screaming and then jumped into her car.

Police were notified by dispatch that the child ran into someone’s apartment, as the front door was unlocked.

When the child ran into the apartment, she asked the family living there if she could stay because a clown was chasing her, the report said.

Dion Santiago, a member of the family, told police he looked out the window and saw Barrett Jr., still wearing the mask, standing outside of the building.

The report said Santiago fired his gun toward the yard of the building next door to scare him off, but Barrett Jr. was not hit by the gunshot.