Monroe, La. - A young man who was at the center of the Jena Six controversy is in the hospital after shooting himself in the chest, according to police.

The wounds are not considered to be life-threatening.

Mychal Bell had been arrested on Christmas Eve after police said he tried to steal shirts and ran from a security guard and an off-duty police officer.

Bell was convicted of beating another Jena High School student in December 2006. The beating and the incidents that proceeded and followed it stirred up racial tensions in the area and sparked a civil rights demonstration.



Mrsbee