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The 16-year-old Clarksburg boy charged as an adult with first-degree assault after striking a police officer with his sports utility vehicle last week abandoned the vehicle after the incident and told his mother it had a flat tire, according to police charging documents filed in court.

The off-duty county officer who was directing traffic outside a church service on Nov. 26 fired his gun at Joseph W. Nelson, who was driving erratically in the parking lot, after he didn't heed two calls to stop and hit the officer.

Police located the SUV, which belongs to Nelson's mother, just north of Church of the Redeemer in the Hadley Farms neighborhood, according to charging documents.

The officer, Josue Zelaya,was in uniform and fired several shots at the vehicle, according to a police statement. It is unclear whether bullets hit the SUV.

Nelson, of the 23200 block of Rainbow Arch Drive, was charged as an adult and released on $50,000 bail Thursday. Court documents list him as a junior at Clarksburg High School. Police refused to say whether anyone was in the vehicle with Nelson, how fast he was driving, or any possible motives for the alleged crime. A spokesman for the state Motor Vehicle Administration confirmed that Nelson, born in February 1992, has a provisional license.

The documents said Nelson admitted his involvement in the incident after they tracked him to his home with the help of a partial license plate number obtained from a witness.

Zelaya, a five-year veteran of the department assigned to the 4th District station, was directing traffic with Officer Larry Haley, who was also off-duty, at 7:15 p.m. on Route 124, according to charging documents.

Nelson was driving a 1999 Mercury Mountaineer erratically and pulled into the church parking lot after ignoring an attempt by Haley to stop him on Woodfield Road, according to charging documents.

Nelson drove around the church and Zelaya tried to stop the vehicle, but Nelson "drove his vehicle at a high rate of speed" toward Zelaya, according to police and the charging documents.

Zelaya fired several shots at the vehicle after he was struck, police said. He was treated at a hospital for injuries to his right foot. He was released and placed on administrative traumatic incident leave, police said.

Nelson drove north on Woodfield Road, according to charging documents. The documents said his mother, Tracy Nelson, interviewed by police at home that night, told them her son had returned home earlier without the SUV, claiming it had a flat tire.

Police arrested Joseph Nelson and took him to police headquarters, where Zelaya identified him as the driver of the vehicle that struck him, according to charging documents. Police located Nelson's vehicle on Electra Court in the Hadley Farms subdivision in Gaithersburg.

A woman who answered the Nelsons' home telephone Monday night refused to comment.