Handgun fired in parking lot

Bloomington police officers arrested a Bloomington resident early Sunday morning after he shot a gun in the parking lot behind Dunkirk Square.\nOfficers received a call from Uncle Festers bar at 3:35 a.m. after a gun was shot outside, said Bloomington Police Department Detective Sgt. David Drake, reading from the police report. When officers arrived, he said, they found a man lying in the parking lot "motionless, with a great deal of blood about his head and face," and a man was walking toward them holding a handgun.\nAccording to the report, the officers drew their weapons and ordered people onto the ground.\n"As it turned out, the guy who was walking toward them with the gun had actually taken it away from the other man," Drake said.\nOfficers confiscated the weapon, a nine-millimeter handgun with 15 rounds of ammunition, and later found 15 more rounds of ammunition in the motionless man's pocket.\nWitnesses told police that Bloomington resident Andrew R. Hoffman, 23, had been trying to start a fight with another man in the parking lot who was trying to walk away from him. They said Hoffman then pulled a gun from his waistband and waved it around, threatening the people around him. They said he fired a shot in an unknown direction.\n"We found a shell casing on the ground, but we don't know where the bullet is," Drake said.\nWitnesses said in the report that after Hoffman fired the shot, people jumped on him, beat him up and took his gun away. Drake said no people were shot.\nAccording to the report, the officers arrested Hoffman on preliminary charges of criminal recklessness with a firearm and pointing a firearm, both of which are class D felonies.\nDrake said Hoffman did have a valid permit for the handgun. He said Hoffman refused to answer questions from police.