Sherman Jackson says he was just leaving church at 1:15 a.m. when a police officer shot him from behind for no reason. The Jackson Police Department says he was running from police early New Year’s Day when he was accidentally shot.

The department said in a news release that officers were responding to reports of gunfire near a middle school when they came across Jackson and another man near a home. Jackson refused to take his hands out of his pockets and took off running.

The officer caught up with Jackson, who still refused to comply with commands by not taking his hands out of his pocket, the news release said. That’s when one of the officers tried to remove his weapon from his holster, but accidentally shot toward the ground, police say.

Another officer, according to the news release, thought Jackson had opened fire and shot the suspect in the arm.

Police said Jackson was hiding marijuana and charged him with possession and resisting arrest.

But Jackson, whose injuries were not life-threatening, told WLBT-TV that he had been at church when police arrived and questioned him for no reason. Jackson said he ran because officers pulled their weapons.

“As he comes he got his gun out, so that’s why I’m backing up. I mean why you got to have your gun out? We don’t have anything. I’m backing up. So when I took off running I hear a ’pow’ and I felt my arm and I felt it, and I fell,” said Jackson told the television station.

Jackson was taken to an area hospital a released.

“Due to nature of the call and suspect actions the officer believed that the suspect had a weapon on his person,” police said in a new release.

Jackson said that he will have surgery in about two weeks to remove the bullet still lodged in his arm.