Update: Suspect involved in Carson City armed robbery, chase identified

An armed robbery ended with two crashed police cars and one person in the hospital Thursday morning.

The strong armed robbery happened about 3:15 a.m., at the North Carson Street 7-Eleven. The clerk reported a man walked in with a gun and demanded alcohol before filling a bag with bottles of liquor.

The suspect, Nathan Oakie, reportedly fled to the apartment complex at 20 College Parkway and when deputies attempted to detain Oakie he fled, leading deputies on a small foot chase. When deputies discovered Oakie, they reported he slit both his wrists with a knife he had and jumped into the driver’s seat of one of the patrol vehicles, said Sheriff Ken Furlong.

One deputy was dragged into the patrol car when he attempted to get Oakie out of the vehicle. The two fought inside the car and the suspect accelerated down the alley, slamming into a second patrol car. The second deputy was already outside the car and was able to jump out of the way and avoided being hit.

The patrol car only stopped when Oakie hit a fence and a storage unit at the Dolphin Bay apartments. The second patrol car, the Dolphin Bay property and several parked vehicles were extensively damaged in the incident.

The deputy sustained minor injuries and drove himself to Carson Tahoe Hospital to be evaluated. Oakie was flown to Renown Regional Medical Center via CareFlight for the cuts and bleeding from his wrists, but deputies had to assist paramedics as the suspect was extremely combative all the way to the hospital. Furlong said they anticipated the suspect needed surgery to fix his injuries.

Once released from care, Oakie will be transported to the Carson City Jail for complete booking.

While detectives were investigating the incident, it became known that Oakie had been contacted and questioned Wednesday regarding an anonymous tip received that he had sexually assaulted a minor. At the time of the interview there was insufficient information to take him into custody, however, evidence has been collected to warrant an arrest on the sexual assault charges.

Oakie will be booked into the jail on the charges of: sexual assault, possession of pornography of a child, use/permit minor in the production of child pornography, lewdness with a child under 14, armed robbery, grand larceny auto, resisting arrest with violence, and battery on an officer with a Deadly Weapon. Bail has been set at $1 million.

Though there was extensive property damage and injuries, Furlong said this was the least that could have happened with this incident.

“We were at gunpoint with this man and we never want to see someone killed,” Furlong said. “It was the officer’s discretion that may have saved the suspect’s life.”

Furlong also said they are thankful and lucky the deputy wasn’t more severely injured or killed with the knife during the incident. The suspect had thrown down the knife before jumping into the patrol car, which may have saved the deputy from sustaining major injuries.

Tarzan, the K9 deputy who was also in the patrol car during the incident, was also unharmed in the ordeal. Because Tarzan isn’t trained as a bite dog, he couldn’t help his owner in this incident. But Carson City paramedics who responded have some veterinary training and were able to evaluate and clear Tarzan.

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office and Nevada Highway Patrol are investigating. Furlong said they also recovered the gun used in the robbery and determined it was a toy gun.

Both the patrol cars are most likely not repairable, Furlong said. The two vehicles are eight and eleven years old, and the cost to repair the damages are most likely too great for the $2,500 insurance deductible the city has. Taking the two vehicles out of commission brings the department five patrol vehicles down from last year.

“Because of the age of the fleet many of our cars were supposed to go to salvage,” Furlong said. “But because of last night we will have to reevaluate the need of our aging fleet.”