Three 12-year-olds out Christmas caroling just outside of Anne Arundel County’s Epping Forest neighborhood Saturday night were sent running shortly after they knocked on the door of a house less than a quarter mile from one of their homes.

When the children announced from the landing of one home that they were there to spread some holiday cheer, a man appeared in a bay window next to the front door and pointed a handgun “directly at them,” Anne Arundel County police wrote in charging documents.

The children fled back to one of their homes, and a parent called police, the charging documents say.

Officers retraced the carolers’ route to a home in the 1700 block of Point No Point Drive, where they encountered an apparently “belligerent” Paul Brian Susie, a 58-year-old banker who lives there with his wife, court documents show.

Susie “confirmed through his admission that he was the male subject involved in this incident,” police officers wrote.

Police seized his firearm from a safe and learned from the Maryland State Police Gun Center that he had a handgun permit, according to charging documents. He acknowledged having at least one drink while watching TV with his wife.

“Given Susie’s reckless behavior in pointing a loaded firearm at a group of non-threatening twelve year old’s he could clearly see on his well-lit stoop, his loud and belligerent behavior during my conversation with him, and his admission of consuming an alcoholic beverage I know through my training, knowledge, and experience Susie was likely under the influence,” an officer wrote.

Police arrested Susie on Saturday. Court records show he is charged with three counts each of first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. He also faces one count of wearing and carrying a handgun while under the influence.

Susie was released from custody Sunday after posting a $10,000 unsecured bond.

Reached by phone Monday, he declined to comment. His attorney Michelle LaTorre also declined to comment.

The frightening altercation in the well-to-do community outside Annapolis recalls other incidents where harmless pranks by children ended with violence.

In Houston, a man was charged with murder this fall after fatally shooting an 11-year-old boy who was playing “ding-dong ditch,” a game that involves ringing someone’s doorbell and running away before they answer.

Something similar played out in October in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where a man faces murder charges for fatally shooting a teenager playing the game.