A 21-year-old Lawrence man accidentally shot himself in the groin early Friday while playing with a gun he didn’t think was loaded.

Police said the man was handling the 9 mm handgun about 1:10 a.m. while with a group of five acquaintances at an apartment in the 1000 block of Missouri Street. The man, whom police said was under the influence of alcohol, pulled the trigger and shot himself in “the groin region,” then fell forward and injured his face, said Sgt. Dan Ward. Police declined to be more specific about the nature of the injury.

The man went to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where workers called police. Officers have not released the man’s identity, in part because he is considered a suspect for unlawfully firing a gun.

Police are trying to determine who owned the gun and what happened to it. One of the man’s acquaintances, a 20-year-old Lawrence man, was uncooperative during the investigation and was arrested for obstruction.