SAN DIEGO

An undercover police officer shot and wounded a passenger in a car that tried to run him down Tuesday, police officials said.

Officer Angel Baldenegro and his partner, Jim Ryan, were staking out the Mervyn’s department store on Saturn Boulevard in South San Diego in an effort to catch people involved in a series of thefts there, police said.

Shortly after 2 p.m., police said, the officers saw a man carrying a stack of designer jeans run out of the store toward his car and throwing the merchandise into the vehicle.

Police said that the officers, dressed in street clothes, approached the man, identified themselves as police officers and ordered him to stop, but that he jumped into the car and drove it at the officers instead.

As he jumped out of the way, Baldenegro fired two shots at the car, police said.

The car fled but was pulled over a few minutes later on Interstate 5, just north of Palm Avenue, police said.

The driver, Michael John Donahoe, 29, of San Diego was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and burglary.

One of the shots fired by Baldenegro hit a passenger, Rosella Esparza, 32, of National City, in the thigh, police said. She was taken to UCSD Medical Center, where she was in stable condition Tuesday night. Donahoe was not injured.