A suspect is in custody hours after an Omaha police officer was in critical condition following a shootout at a JCPenney store inside a mall in the largest city in Nebraska, according to authorities.
Omaha police told Fox News on Friday night that the injured policeman was alert and would be undergoing surgery.
Two police officers were responding to an incident and one was shot, police said earlier. The suspect was described only as a black man.
He was taken into custody after a high-speed chase, according to Omaha police lieutenant Sherie Thomas.
The department separately announced on Twitter that the injured policeman was stable and that the Nebraska State Patrol had taken a suspect into custody.
State police said they were investigating on Highway 6, east of Lincoln, the state capital. The two cities are about 60 miles from each other.
The first filming took place at Westroads Mall at around 4 pm local time.
NASHVILLE POLICE OFFICIAL IN SHOT IN THE DOLLAR GENERAL PARKING
In a video posted online by KETV in Omaha, Omaha police chief Todd Schamderer told reporters at the scene that the policeman was taken to a hospital in critical condition and that the suspect was on the run.
“We had an Omaha police officer who answered a shoplifting call at a store,” he said. “When the cops got there … some kind of fight happened and shots were fired.”
He said he did not immediately know how many bullets were involved, but that the policeman had been hit and rushed to the hospital.
Details were scarce at the time, as police said they were working to confirm the information before releasing it to the public.
The video of the mall shared on social media showed a large police presence on Friday afternoon, with police officers unwrapping a yellow ribbon around a section of the mall.
“Prayers for the blue,” tweeted the Omaha Police Department shortly after reports surfaced about the shooting.
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Omaha police said they planned to release more details later in the evening or on Saturday.