Memphis police have detained three people of interest after an officer on patrol was shot Wednesday afternoon.

Investigators said the officer, who had been looking for stolen vehicles, called in shortly before 1 p.m. that he had been shot. Another officer took him to Regional One hospital.

Police Chief C.J. Davis said the officer was initially listed in critical condition but had been upgraded to stable condition, WREG reported.

Davis said the area of southwest Memphis where the officer was patrolling is a known drop-off for stolen cars. She said two stolen vehicles were located and that one or more people in one of those vehicles fired at that officer as he was leaving the area and also chased the officer’s vehicle.

Preliminary information on a Memphis Police officer shot in the area of Horn Lake and Horn Lake Cove.
Please call 901-528-CASH with any tips. pic.twitter.com/9DFz9LLrpH

— Memphis Police Dept (@MEM_PoliceDept) August 31, 2022

Another officer pursued the suspects and was involved in a crash with a civilian car. The officer and the other driver were taken to the hospital, where the officer was in non-critical condition, and the other driver was said to be alert.

Davis said the three people who were detained were in a vehicle that fit the description of the suspect vehicle; investigators are now working to determine if it was involved.

“As of right now, we don’t know for sure that the vehicle that we stopped, the Infiniti, was the exact vehicle that these officers had stopped when this incident took off,” Davis said, according to The Daily Memphian.

Schools in the immediate area were temporarily placed on lockdown while the incidents were investigated.

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