An 18-year-old man today accidentally shot himself with an unlicensed .357 Magnum handgun in east Hollywood, police said.
The weapon discharged as the man was pulling it from the waistband of his pants in the 4400 block of Lockwood Avenue just after midnight, and a bullet became lodged in his thigh, said Sgt. Melvin Gamble of the Los Angeles Police Dept.’s (LAPD) Rampart Station.
The man then walked about half a block to knock at a resident’s front door and asked for paramedics to be summoned, Gamble said, adding that he initially reported someone had shot him but came clean at the hospital.
“He’s 18,” Gamble said of the wounded man. “He’s not allowed to keep or have a gun,” and the weapon was not licensed, he said.
Gamble said the young man can expect a visit from the LAPD, but his situation could have been worse.
“If he had shot himself in the scrotum, he would have been really messed up,” Gamble said.
