A man committed back-to-back carjackings in two Minneapolis suburbs, stabbing and seriously injuring one of his victims, and was arrested after running from police on a busy west metro freeway where he tried to seize other vehicles , according to the complaint filed Tuesday. .
Nathan Mathias Sughroue, 41, of Indianola, Neb., was charged in Hennepin County District Court with attempted first-degree murder and armed carjacking in connection with the two incidents Saturday, first in Shakopee and shortly afterwards in Bloomington.
Sughroue remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of a court appearance Thursday. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
“You cannot carjack and stab people and expect to get away with it in the city of Bloomington,” said a statement from Police Chief Booker Hodges.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police were called to a gas station on W. 98th Street shortly after 1 p.m. in reference to two men fighting outside a car. Officers spoke with one of the men, whose shirt was soaked in blood, as he sat in a Hyundai sedan while someone with him applied pressure to the man’s wound with numerous towels. Officers soon learned that the Hyundai had been hijacked at knifepoint about 90 minutes earlier in Shakopee.
The injured man in Bloomington told police he was going to get gas for his vehicle, a Nissan SUV, when someone pulled the Hyundai in front of him. That driver, later identified as Sughroue, approached the owner of the SUV and demanded the keys.
“Are you serious?” The complaint quoted the SUV driver as telling Sughroue, who then got into the front passenger seat of the SUV. The two soon started fighting.
Sughroue managed to get into the driver’s seat of the SUV and drive away from the gas pump while the “victim was still partially inside,” the complaint said.
As the SUV moved, the victim was pushed or fell to the sidewalk. Sughroue drove away and “broke the gas pump hose as it drove away,” the complaint continued. The victim said Sughroue appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Medical personnel at HCMC found the SUV driver, who is not named in the complaint, had a stab wound to his neck that required several stitches, along with stab wounds to his abdomen, chest, liver and stomach. He remained in the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon.
A bystander at the gas station told police he heard the victim tell Sughroue, “There’s no way you’re taking my car.”
The bystander also said that at one point, Sughroue and the driver of the SUV were fighting outside the vehicle, and the victim “got the upper hand,” according to the complaint. At that point, Sughroue repeatedly stabbed the driver of the SUV before driving away.
Officers searched the Hyundai that was hijacked at knifepoint by a woman near a Caribou coffee shop on Heather Street in Shakopee, and found Sughroue’s photo ID and other personal items on the front passenger seat.
Two people at the scene in Shakopee told police they were treating Sughroue for a need not listed in the complaint when they lost sight of him.
Shortly thereafter, a Shakopee police officer spotted the carjacked Hyundai driving north on County Road 17. 169 from Highway 17 and gave chase. However, the chase was called off when Sughroue changed lanes in a construction zone, hit a barrel on the highway and sped away.
Shortly after 1:15 p.m., Robbinsdale police responded to the scene of a traffic accident involving the stolen SUV on Hwy. 100 south of the 42nd Avenue exit. Sughroue ran from the wreckage and tried to get into vehicles as they drove south.
“Ultimately,” the complaint said, “[Sughroue] was dragged across the highway and fell into lanes.”
Police spotted Sughroue in the bushes near a highway barrier wall and arrested him. His shirt was hanging around his neck, he had a rash on his stomach and his head was bloody.
