Shortly before 9:30 a.m. Sunday, local police agencies attempted to pull over a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed and swerving all over the roadway southbound on Route 3 through Columbia and Waterloo, then south to Red Bud, back north into Waterloo, then west on Route 156 into Valmeyer, south on Levee Road, and north on Bluff Road before finally coming to rest near Maeystown.

The vehicle, driven by a 15-year-old male from Festus, Mo., with a 15-year-old female passenger, was initially involved in a crash in Missouri before entering Illinois, according to police radio dispatch. Both were taken into custody following the nearly hour-long incident. The vehicle was also involved in a crash in Red Bud. Cassie Kloth of Waterloo said she was driving her Jeep on West Market Street in Red Bud with her 10-year-old daughter as a passenger when the suspect vehicle crashed into her. No injuries were reported in that crash.

At 9:20 a.m., a Columbia police officer observed a green Pontiac with Missouri plates traveling at a high rate of speed and swerving on Admiral Parkway south through town. The car failed to stop for the officer, prompting a pursuit south on Route 3. Waterloo Police Department and then Monroe County Sheriff’s Department patrol cars followed the Pontiac as it continued south into Red Bud.

After coming back north into the county from Red Bud, Monroe County Sheriff Neal Rohlfing said the Pontiac rammed a deputy’s patrol car near the Gateway FS plant outside of Maeystown. Soon after, the car blew out a tire on railroad ties, forcing it to come to a stop.

The male driver apparently stole a family member’s vehicle. He was held at the juvenile detention center in St. Clair County prior to Tuesday arraignment on multiple charges before a judge in Monroe County.

Monroe County Sheriff Neal Rohlfing said the driver was arraigned on charges of aggravated reckless driving, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, aggravated fleeing and eluding, aggravated assault to a police officer, and criminal damage to state supported property. He was remanded to the Missouri Department of Corrections for a probation violation.