A man accidentally shot himself near Downtown Long Beach Monday evening but refused to let paramedics take him to the hospital, according to authorities.

The man, who is in his 40s, was in his apartment in the 700 block of E. Medio Street—which is near E. Shoreline Drive and E. Ocean Boulevard—when the gun went off, said Officer Ben Hearst, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department.

The man was “manipulating his firearm” before it accidentally discharged, hitting him in the upper torso, Hearst said. The wound wasn’t life-threatening, according to Hearst.

Paramedics who arrived to help the man called police to the scene, but officers determined he hadn’t committed any crime, according to authorities.

“The Long Beach Police Department reminds the public to handle all firearms with extreme safety,” Hearst said.

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.