This article was originally published on GoErie by Tim Hahn on Oct. 26, 2017. 

Investigators searching for suspects who shot a 44-year-old man in the thigh Wednesday night.

Erie police have recovered a gun and will test it for evidence in their investigation into a late-night shooting on the city’s east side that sent a 44-year-old man to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the thigh Wednesday.

Police had no suspects Thursday morning in the shooting, which happened in the area of East 10th Street and Hess Avenue. Officers were dispatched to the area at 11:01 p.m. Wednesday to investigate a reported fight and received additional calls reporting that shots had been fired.

Officers were dispatched a short time later to UPMC Hamot on a report of a gunshot victim who had arrived at the hospital for treatment.

The victim, whom investigators said was shot in the right thigh and appeared to have been beaten up, told police that he was walking on East 10th Street when he heard two gunshots. He said he and a friend ran to the victim’s car, and he realized he had been shot and asked his friend to take him to the hospital, according to investigators.

But witnesses at the scene of the original fight and shooting call told police that three males were fighting outside of a tavern in the 900 block of Hess Avenue when one of the males was shot in the leg and was driven to the hospital, detectives reported Wednesday.

Police recovered the gun at the reported shooting scene, Lt. Jon Peters said.

Anyone with information that could assist investigators is asked to contact Detective Sean Bogart at 870-1191 or Peters at 870-1159.