ABC News(MERIDIAN, Miss.) — A 12-year-old girl allegedly took her mother’s car and led police on a chase around a trailer park before crashing into a sheriff’s deputy responding to the incident, authorities said.
Video of the event on Wednesday night near Meridian, Mississippi, shows the moments before and after a deputy was allegedly hit by the vehicle. A few seconds later, gunshots are heard when another officer allegedly fired on the car.
The deputy suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, a spokesperson for the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s office said.
The 12-year-old suspect has been detained and is at a juvenile detention center, the sheriff’s office said.
Sheriff Billy Sollie told ABC News that the deputy was laying out spike strips that are used to stop vehicles when he got hit by the car. Sollie also defended the other responding officer’s firing shots at the car, which he said were aimed at the vehicle, not the girl.
“That 3,500-pound vehicle is being operated by a 12-year-old,” Sollie said. “It would be the same difference if a 12-year-old had a gun pointed at you. Would you say, ‘She’s 12, she’s not going to pull the trigger’?”
Witnesses said the girl was driving in circles around the area at a high speed.
“She was going like 70, 80 miles [per hour],” Charles Brown told ABC News affiliate WTOK in Meridian.
“The officer, I guess he was trying to get the spikes out [on] the road or something, and she ran him over,” Brown said.
Sollie told WTOK that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the investigation.
The bureau has not yet responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
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