Joshua Taylor Smith (Jail photo)

WACO (February 6, 2013)—An argument between a teenage mother and the 21-year-old father of her 2-month-old daughter escalated into a pitched battle involving pepper spray and a knife in the parking lot of the Hooters restaurant at 3927 Jack Kultgen Freeway in Waco, police said Wednesday.

The argument started at around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday after the teenager and her boyfriend went to pick up the infant from a babysitter, who was waiting at the restaurant, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said Wednesday.

The dispute quickly escalated, moving from inside the restaurant to the parking lot where the woman pulled out her pepper spray and her boyfriend brandished a knife, Swanton said.

The teenage woman’s mother arrived in the middle of the spat and when the woman and infant attempted to leave with her, the boyfriend jumped onto the hood of the car in an attempt to stop them.

Three men inside the restaurant who witnessed the incident pulled him off of the car, Swanton said, but as the woman, her mother and the infant headed to Interstate 35, the man got in his van and rammed their vehicle, Swanton said.

Officers later arrested Joshua Taylor Smith, 21, in the 2100 block of South 21st Street.

He was in the McLennan County Jail Wednesday afternoon, charged with aggravated assault and endangering a child.

He was ordered held in lieu of bonds totaling $30,000.