Metropolitan Police Department officers responded after ShotSpotter recorded at least four shots being fired near Saint Elizabeths Hospital and upon arrival they found a Washington D.C. special police officer had been shot in the lower leg Thursday evening.

The special police officer was conscious and breathing, reports WUSA9. The officer sustained minor injuries and is in stable condition.

A special police officer is commissioned to protect a specific property, such as St. Elizabeth's Hospital. They can carry weapons and make arrests only at the specific property they are commissioned to protect.

Police tell  FOX5 a man drove to the security gate at the hospital and claimed he was a gunshot victim before exiting his vehicle and shooting the officer in the leg. The suspect fled but was later apprehended when police found him hiding in a maintenance room at the Congress Heights Metro Station’

In other shootings involving special police officers, one was killed when she was shot during training at a library earlier this month and another officer died after being shot three times in May.