Lincoln Police were called to the area of 30th and ‘Y’ Street just after midnight on New Year’s Day on a report of a man firing a gun into the air. LPD says when officers arrived they saw the suspect lighting off bottle rockets and fireworks.
“When they contacted the suspect, they asked if he had a firearm and he said he did not,” says LPD Public Information Officer Erika Thomas. During a subsequent search officers found a 9mm handgun in his back pocket and 2.1 grams of marijuana in his coat.
Thomas says officers determined he had also been shooting the gun. They found several shell casings by a fence nearby. 44-year-old Ellory Harper of Canon, Georgia, was taken to the Lancaster County Jail and cited for discharging a firearm, possession of marijuana and discharging unlawful fireworks.
LPD says there were five fireworks calls on December 31 and 12 fireworks calls on New Year’s Day.