A man dressed as a video game superhero had a scare in Winnipeg Friday morning when he was stopped by a group of police officers wanting to check his weapons.

Joshua Cook was on his way to St. John's Park for a charity event dressed up as the popular video game character named Master Chief.

"I was just walking down Portage," said Cook. "I just happened to stop in front of the MTS Centre and then out of nowhere I see two police officers jump out of their car...out of nowhere I noticed it was six police officers and eight police officers."

Cook said he got scared when he noticed one of the officers was a Tactical Team member with an assault rifle.

"I was so nervous to the point I almost fainted," said Cook.

Police said they had a good reason for their response — from far away the costume looked like body armour — similar to what a man accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others in a movie theatre in Aurora Colorado wore last month.

"As a whole we all are becoming more sensitive to violence and weapons and very unfortunate circumstances that can happen anywhere," said Const. Jason Michalyshen with the Winnipeg Police Service.

After noticing the cardboard armour and the iPod strapped to Cook's wrist officers realized he was not a threat.

Police asked Cook to take his costume off until he got to the park.