The car chased at one time or another by several departments had been involved in a traffic stop Tuesday afternoon in Bel-Ridge. As a Bel-Ridge officer talked with the driver outside the car, a woman passenger slid over to the driver's seat and took off, police said.

In her escape, the woman hit a police vehicle with an officer. That officer was uninjured. Bel-Ridge police began a pursuit but stopped because of the driver's 11-month-old child in the car, police say.

Jennings picked up the pursuit on Interstate 70 when a dispatcher said the car's driver was wanted for assaulting a police officer -- hitting the patrol car. But Jennings officers did not know a child was in the vehicle, Doyle said.

At some point Hauck used his department-issued .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun to fire several shots at the tires of the car, Doyle said. Doyle said the car's tires were not shot out.

The Jennings officer chased the car into St. Louis city, and the chase ended at Shreve and Bircher avenues. Paulino, Velda City's chief, was involved in the end of the chase.

He said he tried to pull the woman from the car to take her into custody. But the woman struggled and they ended up fighting, he said.

"She said she was not going to jail," he said.