Police say they arrested a man who was shooting a gun into the air outside a busy stretch of bars and restaurants in Downtown Long Beach over the weekend.

Police said they first got reports about the gunfire near Pine Avenue and Third Street at 1:54 a.m. Sunday, as nearby bars were shutting down for the night.

When officers got to the scene, they contacted the driver of a parked car that a witness connected to the shooting.

The driver, “stated he discharged a few rounds in the air,” according to police, who said it appeared he wasn’t trying to target anyone but was shooting at the sky, “in order to disperse a crowd that had gathered as a result of an altercation.”

Police say they seized a gun and arrested the man, a 24-year-old from Wilmington, on suspicion of negligent discharging a firearm, a felony. He was held on $35,000 bail but has since been released on bond, according to jail records.

After years of increases, shootings dropped in the first half of 2022