NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A self-defense claim is under investigation in Nashville after a pregnant woman was shot in a Walgreens parking lot on the city’s east side, forcing doctors to perform an emergency cesarean section and deliver her premature baby.

The shooting took place around 8 p.m. Wednesday on the city’s east side.

Police said an employee at the Walgreens location was notified by another employee that two women were stealing items from the store. The employee told police he saw the women putting items into a store cart and a large over-the-shoulder bag. He said he then began recording the women with his cellphone and followed them as they left the store without paying for the items.

He followed the women to their car, where they were putting the items in the trunk investigators said. That’s when he said one of the women pulled a can of mace and began spraying him.

The employee then pulled his semi-automatic pistol and began shooting, saying he was afraid and did not know if either of the women were armed. The women fled in their car while the employee went back into the store and called 911, according to police.

Investigators said one of the suspected shoplifters, a 34-year-old woman, was seven months pregnant and had been shot multiple times by the employee. The other woman drove her to Nashville General Hospital and drove away. An ambulance transported the woman to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The injured woman’s child, who was not injured by the gunfire, was delivered via an emergency C-section at Vanderbilt. Both the woman and her baby are in critical but stable condition.

The investigation remains ongoing.