Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said Monday that he suffered minor injuries over the weekend when a revolver he was firing burned his thumb.

He also dismissed reports he'd been shot.

Bell was one of 600-800 people attending strip club franchise owner Jack Galardi's invitation-only, annual Fourth of July party in Butts County on Saturday. Galardi's empire includes Pink Pony South, a recently opened strip club in Forest Park.

Bell said he took advantage of a firing range on Galardi's 500-acre Flovilla ranch to try out a friend's new "high caliber" handgun.

"Fire jumped out between the barrel and the cylinder and really cauterized, burned my thumb," Bell said Monday. "It looks ugly."

Bell, a former Atlanta police chief, said he was unfamiliar with the gun.

"It was a huge gun, a caliber I've never witnessed before in my police career," he said. "I'd never handled a handgun higher than a .38-caliber."

He said he was bandaged at the ranch and went to Crawford Long Hospital only on the advice of his doctor. Bell said the wound was stitched up and he was back at work Monday.

"It was an accident and I was not shot," he said.

As word of the incident surfaced, Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill on Monday issued a press release calling Bell's association with Galardi "highly suspicious in light of the many facts and present circumstances surrounding Galardi's operations in Clayton County and in other states."

Hill has butted heads with Bell over various issues, including approval of the Pink Pony operation in Forest Park, which Hill opposed. Galardi Enterprises is now suing the Sheriff's Department because of safety road checks Hill ordered near the strip club, according to the release.