MANCHESTER —Dan Doherty, the city police officer shot several times while chasing a suspect March 21 on the West Side, continues to improve, a Manchester police spokesman said Thursday.

“Doing well, continues to improve daily, we're very encouraged,” read an email sent Thursday by Lt. Maureen Tessier.

Ever since he was shot nine days ago, Doherty's colleagues have been guarded about what they say about his medical condition. He is being treated at Catholic Medical Center, police have said, but the hospital can't confirm that, said spokesman Morgan Smith.

Patients must approve release of information before a hospital can even acknowledge they have been admitted, Smith said.

Earlier this week, Police Chief David Mara said that Doherty spoke for the first time, an event he called “uplifting.”

Officials have said Doherty was shot five times in the torso and leg, but officials have never said whether some or any bullets were deadened by Doherty's bulletproof vest.

One witness to the shooting has said Doherty had lost a lot of blood, turned gray and started to go limp before fellow officers arrived to give help. A neighborhood resident has said he saw a bullet wound near the ankle of one foot.

Meanwhile, the man charged with attempted murder in the shooting, Litchfield resident Myles Webster, 22, remains at the Valley Street jail undergoing classification. Part of that involves a test for tuberculosis, which can take three to five days, said Jail Superintendent David Dionne. Webster remains in the classification unit with other new inmates and has caused no trouble, Dionne said.

In the classification unit, any inmate is allowed out of his cell for two hours a day to exercise, receive visitors or make telephone calls, Dionne said.

Classifications determine how many hours an inmate is allowed out of his cell and what work, if any, he is allowed to do in the jail.