A Jackson Center man who threatened to "gut" a Mercer policeman "like a stuffed pig" has been charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats, disorderly conduct and retaliation against a victim, witness or party, police said.

Mercer police said they picked up John M. Fortuna, 23, of 123 McCurdy Road, at about midnight Thursday in the parking lot of a convenience store on Erie Street on a warrant for a traffic violation. The warrant was not from the borough, Chief Dave Fockler said.

While being driven to the Greenville Regional Lock-up, Fortuna continually threatened the policeman, Fockler said.

"He said things like he was going to try to take his night stick and beat him with it, that he was going to try to take his gun and blow his head off, that he was going to take a knife and gut him like a stuffed pig, cut him up straight from the middle to his neck," the chief said.

Fortuna also told the policeman that when he got out of jail, he was going to "find the officer and kick the crap out of him as well as the other officers in the department because he hates all pigs," Fockler said.

Fortuna was handcuffed to the back seat and separated by a Plexiglas cage from the officer at the time of the threats, police said. He was in Mercer County Jail Monday morning.

Fockler said the basis for the aggravated assault charge is because Fortuna was creating a physical menace and trying to put the officer in fear of imminent bodily injury.

"We take it very seriously when someone makes threats like this, especially when they're so explicit about what they're going to do," the chief said. "It's not uncommon to have someone tell us 'I'm going to get even with you,' but this guy was very explicit and very adamant."