A suspect who fired on a police car and then fled was shot by an off-duty officer working as a security guard inside a southwest-side movie theater Sunday night, authorities said.

Officers said the man opened fire on a marked police car sitting in front of the China Garden restaurant just after 9 p.m. Sunday. The officer inside the car was not hit.

The suspect then fled on foot to the Santikos Mayan Palace movie theater near I-35 and Southwest Military. He entered the lobby and was seen by the security officer, who shot him, said Louis Antu of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

The suspect was taken to a nearby hospital. His condition has not been released.

Antu credited the deputy's training with "saving a lot of lives."

Multiple people were in custody for questioning, and theater-goers also were providing eyewitness accounts to investigators.

Juan Sanchez was at the theater to watch "The Hobbit" and described the scene inside.

"Somebody came in and just grabbed their family and started saying that somebody was shooting in the lobby, so we just got out stuff together and went out the back door and came around, and that's when the cops showed up," Sanchez said.

Police shut down some of the lanes of Southwest Military Drive near the theater, including on-ramps and off-ramps from the interstate, until just past midnight.