A St. Louis police detective shot in the shoulder early Thursday was fired on as he followed his own vehicle, which he had lent to a family member who didn’t return it, police said.

Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole said the officer, 54, was stable at St. Louis University Hospital after the 1:20 a.m. shooting. Police were looking for at least two suspects in the crime.

Officers found the car Thursday afternoon in the 3400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue and took a 35-year-old man into custody, but they said they were still trying to determine whether the man had any connection to the shooting. Police confirmed that the officer’s family member, who originally took the car and did not return it, was not involved in the shooting.

Police said shortly after the shooting that the detective was investigating a stolen vehicle. But they later said it had not been reported stolen to police. Instead, the detective had been on the lookout for the vehicle after a relative he lent it to several days earlier failed to return it.

Another officer had spotted the vehicle in the area of Alberta Street and South Grand Boulevard, police said. That officer told the detective, who was on duty, about seeing the vehicle.