A former state senator faces federal charges after authorities say he killed seven goslings with his gas grill.

Mike Gunn faces a fine of $250 per charge and up to six months in jail after he was cited for killing seven geese out of season. Steve Adcock, chief of law enforcement for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, said the case is still under investigation and Gunn could face more charges.

“It wasn’t a typical hunting situation,” Adcock said. “He was trapping them and then killing them with his gas grill.”

Gunn served two years in the state House of Representatives and six in the state Senate in the 1980s and ’90s. He resigned in 1997, a year after a failed bid for the U.S. House, to take a job with the Washington-based Tobacco Institute, which soon folded.

Neighbors who say they witnessed Gunn killing the birds called authorities. He allegedly scooped them up at his home and put them in the grill, then removed their bodies a short time later and tossed them in the trash.

“These were residents who were very concerned over actions they believed to be inhumane,” Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks spokesman Jim Walker said. “These were very young birds — just chicks.”