Police say that a man shot himself in the leg while riding in a car down Whitmore Avenue Monday evening and tried to change his story when he realized that he wasn't supposed to possess a gun since he was on felony probation.

At 11:50 p.m. police dispatchers received a call from a woman who was laughing hysterically and reporting that a male friend had shot himself in the upper thigh. She said she pulled over at the McDonald's at Whitmore Avenue and Morgan Road so that emergency personnel could attend to him. When paramedics arrived they found that the victim, Joel Gonzalez, 34, of Ceres, had tied fabric around his leg as a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.

However, the pair changed their story when police arrived. Gonzalez told police that he was walking down the street when he was shot by some unknown person. He said because of the trauma that he forgot why he was walking, where he was walking and how he ended up in the car. The female companion also recanted her story and then said she didn't remember seeing the gun at all.
Officers realized the pair was lying to cover for his possession of a gun.

Police searched Whitmore Avenue and did not find the gun.

Gonzalez was treated for the gunshot wound at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto. He apparently was not arrested, said Lt. Brent Smith.