LAS VEGAS — Police have released new details about an officer-involved shooting that erupted after a man fired a shotgun and wounded a woman during a squabble that started in a moving vehicle on a bustling freeway near the Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas police now say they believe the gunman who was shot and critically wounded by a police motorcycle officer Thursday afternoon fired at least one shot at officers and least once into traffic on Interstate 15 near Blue Diamond Road.

The gunman was also stunned with a Taser before he and the wounded woman were hospitalized in critical condition.

Las Vegas police Lt. Lewis Roberts said the alleged gunman and woman were in critical condition after the Thursday afternoon shooting near an exit on Interstate 15.

The couple was riding in a red sports utility vehicle with two male friends when the gunman began arguing with the woman. Police say the man punched one of his friends and then assaulted the woman.

The friend who was driving parked the vehicle and tried to calm the gunman. That’s when the man pulled out a shotgun, Roberts said.

The woman and the two friends ran from the car, but the gunman followed, shooting the woman as motorists zoomed past.

The friends fled to a nearby Jack in the Box restaurant, where they were taken into police custody immediately after the shooting. Roberts said the men were not suspects.

"He had already shot her and he definitely would have shot them," Roberts said. "They fled to a safe place."

Police received numerous 911 calls before Las Vegas officers arrived at the scene and shot the gunman.

Interstate 15 is the busy north-south freeway linking Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The shooting happened within sight of the casino resorts of the Strip.

The Nevada Highway Patrol briefly closed southbound I-15, but quickly reopened the freeway while exits and entrances remained closed near the shootings, Trooper Joseph Fackrell said.