Charges: Man pulls off back-to-back carjackings in Minneapolis suburbs, stabs victim who fought back

A man pulled off back-to-back carjackings in two Minneapolis suburbs, stabbing and seriously wounding one of his victims, and was arrested after running from police on a busy west metro highway where he tried to commandeer other vehicles, according to charges filed Tuesday.

Nathan Mathias Sughroue, 41, of Indianola, Neb., was charged in Hennepin County District Court with first-degree attempted murder and armed carjacking in connection with the two incidents Saturday, first in Shakopee and soon afterward 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 can't carjack people and stab them and expect to get away with it in the city of Bloomington," read a statement from Police Chief Booker Hodges.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police were sent shortly after 1 p.m. to a gas station on W. 98th Street concerning two men fighting outside a car. Officers spoke to one of the men, his shirt was saturated in blood, who was sitting in a Hyundai sedan as someone with him put pressure on the man's wound with numerous towels. The officers quickly learned that the Hyundai had been carjacked at knifepoint about 90 minutes earlier in Shakopee.

The wounded man in Bloomington told police he was getting gasoline for his vehicle, a Nissan SUV, when someone pulled the Hyundai in front of him. That driver, later identified as Sughroue, approached the SUV owner and demanded the keys.

"Are you serious?" the complaint quoted the SUV driver as saying to Sughroue, who then got in the front passenger seat of the SUV. The two soon started fighting.

Sughroue managed to get in the driver's seat of the SUV and pull away from the gas pump with the "victim still partially inside," the charges read.

As the SUV moved, the victim was either pushed or fell to the pavement. Sughroue drove off, "snapping the hose from the gas pump as it sped 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 identified in the complaint, suffered a stab wound to his neck that required several stitches along with stab wounds to his abdomen, chest liver and stomach. He remained hospitalized as of midday Tuesday.

A bystander at the gas station told police he heard the victim say to Sughroue, "No way are you taking my vehicle."

The bystander also said Sughroue and the SUV driver were at one point fighting outside the vehicle, and the victim was "getting the upper hand," the charges read. That's when Sughroue repeatedly stabbed the SUV driver before driving off.

Officers searched the Hyundai that was carjacked at knifepoint from a woman near a Caribou coffeeshop on Heather Street in Shakopee, and they found Sughroue's photo identification and other personal items on the front passenger seat.

Two people at the scene in Shakopee told law enforcement they were taking Sughroue to treatment for a need not specified in the charges, when they lost track of him.

Soon afterward, a Shakopee police officer spotted the carjacked Hyundai heading north on County Road 17 from Hwy. 169 and gave chase. However, the pursuit was called off when Sughroue changed lanes in a construction zone, struck a highway barrel and sped away.

Shortly after 1:15 p.m., police in Robbinsdale were on the scene of a traffic collision 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 headed south.

"Ultimately," the complaint noted, "[Sughroue] was dragged along the highway falling into lanes of traffic."

Police spotted Sughroue in the bushes near a highway barrier wall and arrested him. His shirt was hanging from his neck, he had road rash covering his midsection and his head was bloodied.