A Hinckley man is charged with attempted second-degree murder and four other felonies after shots were fired at a pickup truck during a confrontation between drivers in Pine City on March 20, according to a Pine County criminal complaint.
Nathaniel Charles Sansburn, 18, faces five felony counts: attempted second-degree murder, drive-by shooting toward an occupied motor vehicle, two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, one for each person in the truck and intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety. The attempted murder count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The complaint was filed October 9 in Pine County District Court, nearly seven months after the shooting.
According to the complaint, the truck’s driver contacted the Pine County Sheriff’s Office on March 20 and reported that someone had just fired a gun at him in Pine City, leaving bullet holes in his windshield. He said he and his passenger were not injured and were driving to the sheriff’s office. A deputy found the truck in the parking lot with bullet holes in the windshield and shattered rear windows, the complaint says.
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The driver told investigators a blue SUV in front of him was driving erratically and its driver leaned out the window and made gestures at him. He said he yelled at the driver, who then stopped and the driver and two passengers got out. The driver said the SUV’s driver ran toward them and lifted his shirt to show a handgun and that he ducked behind the wheel and drove away as one of the passengers began shooting. He remembered four or five shots, according to the complaint. The passenger in the truck told investigators he saw one of the SUV’s passengers pull a gun, work the slide and raise it toward the truck from about five feet away and that he heard four shots and knew at least one had almost hit him, the complaint says.
A Pine County sergeant found six 9 mm casings in the road where the shooting happened, the complaint says. Investigators who processed the truck on March 23 found a bullet that entered through the passenger side door pillar and fragments inside the door and they found that at least two other rounds had entered through the rear window and gone out through the windshield, according to the complaint.
Through investigation, officers identified three suspects, the complaint says. It says investigators interviewed one of the other men on October 5. He told them he, Sansburn and a third man were in an SUV that belonged to the third man’s mother and that the three got out after it stopped. He said the truck then went in reverse and moved forward, striking the third man in the legs and that Sansburn began firing a gun at the truck, according to the complaint. He told investigators he ran from the scene, the complaint says.
The passenger in the truck described the shooter as wearing a red sweatshirt with long blonde hair. The truck’s driver told investigators that Sansburn has red hair that can appear blonde and that he often slicks it back, according to the complaint.
