OMAHA, Neb. (AP) A man hired last spring to carry out what appeared to be an active shooting at an Omaha charity complete with actors smeared with fake blood has been criminally charged with terrorism counts.

John Channels, of Omaha, was arrested and charged Tuesday with five counts of making terroristic threats and one weapons count. The Omaha World-Herald first reported the arrest.

The incident happened May 19, when Channels, 27, showed up at Omaha Catholic Charities firing blanks from a semiautomatic handgun and staging victims who appeared to have been wounded or killed, police said. The charity hired him to test its workers preparedness for such an attack.

The incident caused panic among the charitys employees because they had not been informed it was a drill. Police said the charity paid Channels $2,500 to carry out the mock shooting and went along with his request not to inform employees beforehand.

One employee told the World-Herald that in her panic at hearing the gunfire, she fled the building and leapt from a retaining wall intending to land and hide in a dumpster several feet below. But she missed and landed on the ground, where she curled up in pain before she ran several blocks to a restaurant.