A St. Paul man was driving the vehicle that struck a teen near Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis during a Ferguson protest Tuesday evening, according to a police report.

After the collision, Jeffrey Patrick Rice, 40, headed east on Lake and was stopped just over a mile away, police said.

Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said the 16-year-old protester suffered a “minor injury” to her leg and was transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

The driver was initially listed as the “victim” in police reports. Late Wednesday, police changed the driver’s status to “suspect.”

The injured protester was listed as “other.”

Police interviewed Rice and released him pending a review by the Hennepin County attorney’s office, according to a police statement Wednesday afternoon.

Rice told police his vehicle was damaged by a large group of people while he was trying to flee the mob, according to the initial police report. The crowd was protesting a grand jury decision not to charge a white Ferguson, Mo., police officer in the August shooting death of Michael Brown, a young unarmed black man.

Rice, who has a record of driving violations, hung up on a reporter Wednesday.

He was convicted of driving after a license cancellation in 2008 in Washington County, a second-degree DWI in 2003 in Scott County, having an open bottle of alcohol in his car and violating a restricted driver’s license in 2001 in Pine County. He was convicted of driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol greater than 0.20, and fleeing police in Ramsey County in 2000.

Police are asking any injured persons or witnesses to call the Traffic Investigations Unit at 612-673-2981.

Emily Gurnon contributed to this report.

Katie Kather can be reached at 651-228-5006.