Girl, 9, leads officers on high speed chase

Posted: Aug 21, 2009 9:09 AM EDT Updated: Aug 21, 2009 12:56 PM EDT

SMYRNA, Tenn. - A nine-year-old girl led officers on a two-county high speed car chase early Friday morning.

According to authorities, the girl's grandmother called police shortly before 3:30 a.m. to say her autistic granddaughter was missing and had taken the keys to her car.

Police spotted the girl six minutes later driving with no headlights on Bell Road in Antioch.

They followed her onto Interstate 24 East, where she reached speeds of 90 miles-per-hour.

She then stopped in the middle of the interstate near the Sam Ridley Parkway exit in Smyrna.

Police pulled in front of her but she decided to take off again, crashing into the police cruiser.

The interstate was shutdown for a short period of time after the incident.

Police said they believe the girl would have stopped had she known right from wrong.

"You know it's kind of gut wrenching because we want her to stop," said Metro police Sgt. Kurt Reddick.  "It was kind of one of those, ‘let's get this ended as quickly as possible and nobody get hurt'."

No one was seriously injured, although the girl had a few scratches on her face.

She is now with her family.

The family says they didn't even know the girl knew how to operate a car and were taken by complete surprise.

Police said she will not face any charges.

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