CATONSVILLE, Md. (WJZ)– A police-involved shooting in the heart of Catonsville disturbs businesses and leads police on a chase after the driver. Detectives say something suspicious about the driver and the car tipped the officer off.

Gigi Barnett has more.

Shortly before noon, the parking lot near the 700-block of Frederick Road in Catonsville became a crime scene Wednesday morning.

Detectives say one of their officers spotted a white Toyota RAV4 idling in the parking lot and something about it just didn’t seem right to the officer.

“We’re not sure what exactly made him identify this car but something was suspicious,” Det. Shawn Vinson, spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department, said.

So, the officer ran the tags. Turns out, it was stolen from Carroll County.

Investigators say that’s when the officer walked over to the car and questioned the driver.

“I was standing outside and saw the officer talking to a parked car and it looked somewhat confrontational,” Linda Johnson, a bartender at Morsberger’s Tavern, said.

But Johnson, who works at the tavern on Frederick Road, thought nothing of the scene and went back to her business.

“Two seconds later, the gunshots went off and saw the officer whirl around. And, saw the officer whirl around and the car just sped off…you could see the smoke, the gun smoke.”

The white SUV ended up at a parking lot near Catonsville High School’s football stadium.

When police caught up, he was bleeding from a gunshot wound to the upper chest.

“Officers were able to take him into custody, when he was suffering from the gunshot wound, without any incident,” Vinson said.

Baltimore County Police say that at no time during this incident were students at Catonsville High School ever in any danger and the school was not on lockdown.

The officer involved in the shooting is on administrative leave while the incident is investigated.