INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana state trooper fired shots at a vehicle driven by a 14-year-old boy after he reached for a gun during a traffic stop, police said.

Senior Trooper Ronald Lowe pulled over the boy in the construction zone on Interstate 465 near the Rockville Road ramp just before 11:30 a.m. on suspicion of speeding, said Sgt. Dave Bursten.

Lowe said that the boy was acting suspicious, and reaching under his seat. When the trooper saw the butt of a gun, he had the boy step out of the car and tried to handcuff him, but the boy struggled, pushing Lowe to the ground, Bursten said.

When the boy got back into the car and reached under his seat again, Lowe fired several shots, striking the car and a back tire, Bursten said.

The boy drove off, but lost control of the car on Rockville Road and ran, police said. He was apprehended by officers in a nearby apartment complex, Bursten said.

A semiautomatic pistol was found under the driver's seat of the car the boy was driving.

The boy was arrested and preliminarily charged with battery on a police officer, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, resisting a police officer and possession of a handgun without a permit.

"Our trooper suffered some minor injuries in the course of the scuffle with the suspect, but this could of ended much more tragically than it did," Bursten said.

Lowe is a 15-year veteran of Indiana State Police.