Cell phone video from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) captured the tense moment armed Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers along with a K-9 officer detained someone dressed as the famous vigilante Zorro.
The LAPD responded to LAX after reports of shots fired caused a minor panic at the airport Sunday night.
The incident caused headaches for travelers with three terminals shut down, roads closed, and flights held in the air and on the ground.
All terminals and roads into the airport had been reopened by 11 p.m. PDT, about two hours after the initial reports, officials said. But massive backup faced travellers in their cars and in security lines. Passengers who fled had to be rescreened through security.
Meanwhile, filmmaker Sam Macon captured the moment several LAPD officers confronted, at gunpoint, a man dressed in a Zorro costume and armed with a plastic sword.
CBS Los Angeles reports the man is an actor who was returning from an audition and did not have time to change. In true Zorro fashion, the man declined to reveal his name or show his face when interviewed.
“I’m sitting down, on the phone, I get police all around me, I’m not even thinking about what’s going on, or what I’m wearing,” Zorro said. “Next thing they said lay down, and I did. Put phone down. Put handcuffs on me, searched me and found no weapons.”
The unidentified man said he believes police were responding to a report of a man dressed in black clothing, which they mistook for him.
WATCH: LAX, second busiest U.S. airport, at a standstill. Aarti Pole reports.
A search through terminals brought no evidence of a gunman or shots fired, Los Angeles police spokesman Andy Neiman said.
The incident came just days after another false alarm led to a panicked evacuation of Kennedy Airport in New York.
-With files from the Associated Press