A 21-year-old Segrest Circle man was arrested early Sunday for allegedly firing a gun in his yard while intoxicated, Athens-Clarke County police said.

Responding to neighbors’ complaints of gunfire, officers questioned the suspect about the reported gunshots and he initially explained the sounds were from him and his friends setting off fireworks on the back porch, according to police.

After the officer located several spent bullet cartridge casings on the ground in the backyard the suspect admitted that he and his friends were shooting at a plastic bottle and a target, police said.

There was an odor of alcoholic beverage on the suspect’s breath and he said that he and his friends had been drinking downtown, according to police.

An officer noted in a police incident report that he explained to the suspect the dangers of shooting a gun in a subdivision where other people lived as close as 100 feet away.

“I went on to explain that shooting intoxicated was an even more ludicrous idea,” the officer stated in the report.

The suspect was charged with discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling and discharging a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, police said. His pistol was seized and submitted into evidence, according to police.