Fugitive leads Ramsey County Sheriff’s deputies on chase with infant inside vehicle

A chase early Saturday morning involving a fugitive with an outstanding drug warrant in Wisconsin ended with the suspect crashing her vehicle in St. Paul with an infant still inside.

According to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, around 12:17 a.m. a deputy noticed a suspicious vehicle at the BP gas station on Little Canada Road East just off of Interstate 35E. The gas station had been burglarized "numerous times" and was closed at the time.

The deputy went up to the vehicle and attempted to speak with the driver, who then sped off, driving onto I-35E and initiating a chase, the sheriff’s office said. The woman took Highway 36 west and then exited onto Hamline Avenue in Roseville and started driving south at a high rate of speed. She eventually lost control of her vehicle and hit a retaining wall near Hamline and Idaho avenues on the Falcon Heights-St. Paul border, causing the vehicle to roll onto the passenger side.

Deputies at the scene tending to the vehicle found a 9-month-old child inside, who had no visible injuries and was responsive while in car of emergency responders, according to the sheriff’s office. The woman and the child were both taken to a nearby hospital for medical attention.

The woman driving the vehicle and the mother of the child, 20-year-old Angelica Henry-Schmidt of St. Cloud, was then booked into the Ramsey County Jail on suspicion of several offenses, including criminal vehicular operation, child endangerment, fleeing police in a motor vehicle and an outstanding Wisconsin Department of Corrections warrant for drugs, the sheriff’s office stated. She has not been formally charged.

The sheriff’s office claims none of its deputies’ squad cars were in contact with the suspect vehicle at any point during the chase.