Nathaniel Foutch-Pratt (LVMPD)
A 28-year-old man in Nevada has been arrested after he allegedly kidnapped his girlfriend and threatened to kill the woman, rescued when she mouthed the words “help me” when driving by police conducting a traffic stop.
Nathaniel Foutch-Pratt was taken into custody last week and charged with one count each of first-degree kidnapping, attempted murder, and domestic battery by strangulation, court records show.
Foutch-Pratt and his girlfriend — whose name has not been released by authorities — were on a road trip traveling from Illinois to California earlier this month when things took a turn for the worse, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Las Vegas NBC affiliate KSNV.
The affidavit reportedly states two officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department first encountered Foutch-Pratt and the victim at about 9:10 p.m. on the night of Feb. 20 during an unrelated traffic stop on a vehicle near the corner of Pecos Road and Washington Avenue. During the stop, one of the officers allegedly saw Foutch-Pratt driving past them at a high speed in an SUV. The officer also noticed a woman in the passenger doing something alarming.
“I observed a white female adult in the passenger seat stick her head out the window,” one of the officers reportedly wrote in the document. “She mouthed the words ‘HELP ME’ as the vehicle was driving away from Officers.”
The driver had clearly been tipped off to what happened because police said he entered the southbound side of U.S. 95 traveling north — against traffic — and the officers gave chase. The SUV crashed a short while later and the officers approached the vehicle.
Police said the driver did not comply with orders to exit the vehicle and instead grabbed one of the seat belts and appeared to be strangling the female passenger. Officers reportedly said he could be heard screaming, “She has to die tonight,” per KSNV.
Police moved on the vehicle and were able to apprehend the driver, later identified as Foutch-Pratt, who allegedly tried to resist with force.
According to a report from Henderson, Nevada, Fox affiliate KVVU, the victim told police she and her boyfriend, whom she identified as Foutch-Pratt, had stopped in Las Vegas during their road trip and were staying at The Stratt Hotel & Casino when Foutch-Pratt began acting “paranoid.” At one point, she claimed he told her that she was “assisting the government in spying.”
After being stopped by hotel security briefly, she said they went to purchase marijuana. During the outing, she claimed Foutch-Pratt told her that she “needed to die.” The comment frightened the victim, who reportedly tried to call for help, which is when Foutch-Pratt allegedly took her phone and began beating her.
Shortly after the abuse, the victim had her chance encounter with the LVMPD officers.
Foutch-Pratt is being held without bond in the Clark County Detention Center.
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