Someone shooting a gun to celebrate the new year sent bullets through two windows of a Downtown Long Beach hotel shortly after midnight, according to authorities.

Police said they were first told about the shots around 12:05 a.m. Officers hurried to the area and surrounded a parking structure near Ocean Boulevard and Elm Avenue where they thought the shooter was, Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Arantxa Chavarria said.

“Officers responded, set a perimeter, and searched the area but were unable to locate suspect(s) or evidence of a shooting,” she said.

It wasn’t until 8 a.m. today that employees at a nearby hotel called police and said they’d found windows in two empty rooms that had been hit by bullets, according to Chavarria. Police said the hotel was at 333 E. Ocean Blvd, which is The Westin.

It doesn’t appear anyone was hurt, but detectives are still gathering evidence and looking for any suspects.

“We also want to remind our community about the dangers of celebratory gunfire, it’s not only illegal but it’s also extremely dangerous,” the LBPD said in a statement. “Fortunately no one was injured during this incident, however, the danger of injuring someone with firing even a single round into the air is a lethal prospect and has serious criminal consequences.”

Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.