A man was shot to death in Downtown Long Beach in the middle of the day Wednesday, and investigators are trying to determine what motivated the killing, according to police.

Police said the shooting occurred around 12:30 p.m. on First Street between Lime and Alamitos avenues.

The victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was shot multiple times in the upper body, according to the Long Beach Police Department. He died at the scene.

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Officers arrested the suspect shooter nearby, police said.

“The preliminary investigation indicates the victim and suspect are neighbors and known to one another,” the department said in a statement. Detectives are still investigating what motivated the shooting.

Police identified the suspected shooter as John Higginbotham, a 64-year-old resident of Long Beach.

He was booked into jail on suspicion of murder and held on $2 million bail, police said.

Police asked anyone with information about the crime to call detectives Eric Thai or Kelsey Myers at 562-570-7244. Anonymous tips can be sent through Crime Stoppers by calling 800-222-TIPS or visiting lacrimestoppers.org.

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.