CAMDEN — A 29-year-old Preble County mother faces charges including drug possession, resisting arrest and child endangering, after leading a Camden Police officer on a traffic pursuit while her child was in the vehicle.

Shannon Kittle, 421 Village South Drive, Eaton, has been charged with aggravated possession of drugs, a fifth-degree felony; illegal use or possession of drug paraphernalia, a fourth-degree misdemeanor; resisting arrest, a second-degree misdemeanor, endangering children, a first-degree misdemeanor and two separate counts of failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer, one a third-degree felony and the second a fourth-degree felony.

According to court documents, on Saturday, May 6, Kittle “operated a motor vehicle so as to willfully elude or flee a police officer after receiving visible or audible signal from a police officer to bring the person’s motor vehicle to a stop.”

Once stopped, she was found in possession of methamphetamine, according to the charges filed, as well as drug paraphernalia. Court documents also say she ” did recklessly or by force resist or interfere with a lawful arrest of herself.”

Court records indicate a Camden Police officer witnessed a car being driven by Kittle with expired plates, and Kittle had an expired driver’s license. She had her four-year-old in the back seat. Kittle consented to a search of the vehicle and the officer found a “crystalline white substance in the zippered portion of a small change purse.” According to reports, the substance was “consistent in appearance and packaging with methamphetamine.”

Court records note, Kittle denied knowing about the drugs by admitted the purse was hers. When the officer attempted to place her in cuffs, she resisted the officer and jumped in the vehicle was had been left running.

“The officer had a hold of the defendant’s arm and was commanding her to stop,” court documents state. ” The defendant placed the car in gear and the officer let go in concern for his own safety and that of the child.”

The officer pursued Kittle, according to reports, “who went through several stop lights and was exceeding 50 miles per hour in a posted 25 mile per hour zone.”

Kittle crashed into a guard rail and was apprehended and both she and the child were taken to Miami Valley Hospital, where the mother was admitted. The child was “emotionally upset, but had been in a car seat and was physically unharmed,” officers reported.

“Sgt. Brown responded to the scene after Officer Stemp was in the pursuit,” Camden Police Chief Matt Spurlock said. “Sgt. Brown made the decision on scene that the child was in extreme danger and he contacted Preble County Children Services.”

According to Spurlock, the child has since been removed from the mother’s custody and placed into the care of the county.