Ramsey County prosecutors have charged a St. Paul man with assaulting his 1-year-old daughter with pepper spray and beating the girl's mother and her friend Tuesday on the city's West Side.

Brandon Vaughn Clark, 20, allegedly broke down the door at the mother's apartment on Western Avenue and threatened her with a replica gun.

He sprayed the girl in the face as her mother tried to shield her during a scuffle, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County Court. Clark has neither legal custody of the girl nor court-ordered visitation rights.

After Clark struck the mother several times, the complaint says, he ran away when neighbors in the apartment building responded to her pleas for help. Clark rammed the mother's car as he fled the apartment house.

The mother's friend, meanwhile, began CPR on the child, who was having difficulty breathing.

Clark is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail in the Ramsey County jail. The 12 felony counts against Clark include burglary and unlawful use of tear gas.

KEVIN GILES