A Marshalltown man faces a number of charges in connection with an odd, midday crime spree. Marshalltown police chief Lon Walker says they got a call from the Marshalltown hospital. Someone driving a white Ford Taurus had smashed the car into the doors to the hospital’s emergency room, backed up, drove around the building and drove into the doors of the O-B-G-Y-N clinic.
Witnesses say the car came close to hitting someone in the parking lot, then sped off. The chief says he had an officer close by who quickly caught up with the car and trailed it through town. “The car was not going exceptionally fast, but was refusing to yield,” Walker says.
The chase then went into rural Marshall County. Officers deployed stop sticks, but the driver was able to drive around many of the sticks before one stop stick deflated the car’s front tire. “He then rammed a city police car. The officers then subdued the individual after a short scuffle,” Walker says.
Twenty-two-year-old Nathanial James Kopple of Marshalltown is being held in the Marshall County Jail. He faces a number of charges, including assault on a peace officer because one cop was slightly injured in the melee. The police chief has been adding up the damages. There was up to two-thousand dollars worth of damage at the hospital, another two-thousand dollars worth of damage to the police cruiser and the Taurus driven by the suspect sustained heavy damage.
The injured officer has a cut on his forearm. “The good news is no one was seriously injured and we were able to take him into custody,” Walker says.