Authorities say a child led police on a chase around Meridian Wednesday night before hitting a deputy.

Authorities say a little before 8 p.m., a 12-year-old girl stole her mother's car at Southern Estates on Valley Road. When sheriff's deputies responded, she led them on a chase. Witnesses tell Newscenter 11 she drove in circles around the area several times at a high rate of speed, endangering many children in the area.

Sheriff Billy Sollie says one of the deputies laid out spike strips during the chase, but the girl kept going and hit the deputy with her car. One witness says he was right there when it happened.

"She cut us off, wide open," Charles Brown says. "The officer threw the spikes out and blew the tires out, and she still kept going and tried to come back around again. The officer, I guess he was trying to get the spikes out the road or something, and she ran him over."

Several witnesses say that's when they heard around five gunshots.

"It was a scream," Brown says. "Really a scream because the second officer, he jumped out his car and went to firing shots at the car."

The deputy was injured, but his injuries are not life-threatening. The sheriff confirms a deputy did fire shots. The girl was not injured and is now in custody.

Sheriff Sollie says the Mississppi Bureau of investigation will be handling the case since a deputy was injured and shots were fired.