A Durham Police officer is recovering after a bullet hit him in the abdomen Thursday morning while he was responding to a call.

This afternoon, Durham Police arrested Thomas Rashawn Monroe, 23, of 3300 Shannon Road, Apt. 5A, in connection with the shooting. He's charged with assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm and is in the Durham County Jail under a $250,000 bond.

Officer D.J. Youmans was with his training officer on a "shots fired" call at an apartment complex at 3300 Shannon Road shortly before 4 a.m. Other witnesses reported a possible break-in in progress to police.

"When they responded and came to the location here, they wound up confronting someone shooting at them," said Chief Jose Lopez, Sr. "There were multiple shots apparently fired."

It woke up some in the neighborhood.

"We were all asleep and we heard pops - about four or five," said Ashley Goodyear, who lives across the street. "It is quiet [here] so it's surprising and it's scary"

Earlier, investigators questioned four people apartment 5-A. Lopez said shots came from inside an apartment but the officers did not shoot back.

"I have to point to the officer's professionalism that in light of the situation they had encountered, they did not fire into the door ... into the apartment," Lopez said. "You have to know who you're shooting at. You can't just shoot randomly into the dark or an inanimate space if you don't know what's behind it."

Emergency teams transported Youmans to Duke University Hospital, where he was in stable condition Thursday afternoon. He was wearing a bullet proof vest, but the shot struck him right below the edge of that protection.

"It's like having someone in your family, which quite frankly ... they are my family ... be subjected to such a violent act," Lopez said.

Youmans joined the Durham force in May after spending two years with the New York City Police Department.

Watch the NBC 17 News video to hear how it all started.