A Brooklyn, IL, police officer was killed early Wednesday on the McKinley Bridge while trying to stop a car fleeing from a nightclub in the Metro East St. Louis.

Brian Pierce Jr., 24, who was identified by his family, was struck by a car around 3 a.m. while trying to deploy spikes on the bridge to flatten the fleeing car's tires, said Lt. Michael Lewis of the Illinois State Police. He had been with the force about nine months.

Police are still searching for the driver who hit the officer, St. Louis Today reports.

Brooklyn police said the suspect who hit Pierce was driving a red Dodge Charger with temporary Illinois tags and a black front end. The Dodge was last seen heading into Missouri from the McKinley Bridge, which crosses from Illinois into the Near North Riverfront neighborhood of north St. Louis.

Police had been chasing the suspect from Bottoms Up nightclub in Brooklyn. Investigators haven't said what happened at the nightclub that caused police to chase the Charger. Police were working to obtain video footage from the bar, authorities said.

Police later found the Charger abandoned in Missouri.