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A Davis police officer was shot Thursday night while responding to a traffic accident, and authorities had cordoned off parts of downtown while searching for a suspect.

Davis police said a female officer was shot around 7 p.m. after responding to a three-car accident near 5th and D streets, and that the officer was rushed to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento in serious condition.

Police were searching near the scene of the shooting and had surrounded a home nearby, where floodlights were pointed at the house and police were ordering occupants to come out with their hands up.

There was no obvious sign of a suspect being detained, but police scheduled a news conference at headquarters that was expected to begin just before midnight.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel had been expected to make an announcement earlier Thursday, but postponed the news conference around 10:30 p.m. as police pursued a lead about the suspect.

The suspect was described as a “a white male in his 20’s Average Build, Baseball Cap, Black Jacket, Blue or Tan Jeans, Black Tactical Boots.”

Heavily armed police were seen throughout the area late Thursday, blocking off intersections and scouring the area as bystanders watched, and law enforcement officers from throughout the region rushed to the area, including two dozen from the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department.

Shortly after the shooting, UC Davis police tweeted a “shelter in place” warning and advised people to stay away from downtown Davis, and authorities issued alerts via cell phone and text messages to alert citizens. Caltrans said Richards Boulevard and Olive Drive offramps from Interstate 80 are closed.

The department is relatively small, with 61 sworn officers and 34 civilian staffers, and Davis police spokesman Lt. Paul Doroshov described it as a family, saying officers were “all pretty shocked” by the shooting.

One officer appeared at department headquarters Thursday night carrying a bouquet of flowers, but walked away after seeing the gathering of media inside.

The department’s 2017 annual report said violent and property crimes had decreased steadily in recent years, with one homicide reported in 2017 and none in 2016.

The department has not had an officer killed in the line of duty in nearly 60 years, when Douglas Cantrill was gunned down Sept. 7, 1959.

According to the previous reporting by The Sacramento Bee, the 23-year-old patrolman was found shot to death in his cruiser along H Street. Cantrill had stopped a man and woman acting suspicious in a residential neighbor when a struggle ensued and the killer had shot him with his service pistol.

Two suspects were caught but never charged with the officer’s slaying, according to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.

Cantrill, who had only served on the Davis force for a month after two years in law enforcement, was survived by a wife and infant child, the District Attorney’s Office said. His name is one of 11 inscribed on Yolo County’s Fallen Officer Memorial in Woodland.