Sonoma Valley man shot by deputies was armed with makeshift gun, police say

A Sonoma Valley man shot this past weekend by Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies in Sonoma was armed with a makeshift gun that he used to fire on one of the deputies, investigators said.

Nathan Smart, 43, remained in critical condition Wednesday at a Sacramento hospital, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department, which is investigating the incident.

He is expected to survive and may face charges of attempted homicide and attempted homicide of a police officer, Santa Rosa police Sgt. Chris Mahurin said Wednesday.

“He’s going to be admitted to the hospital for the foreseeable future,” Mahurin added.

It was not immediately clear if Smart has an attorney.

Investigators are trying to determine how he got the gun, which Mahurin described as an “improvised firearm” and appears to be made of pipe and black tape.

The weapon’s bullet capacity hasn’t been determined, but Mahurin said investigators believe Smart fired at least one round at a deputy during the incident Saturday night. Another round was still inside the weapon when it was recovered, he said.

Both sheriff’s deputies are on paid administrative leave.

Mahurin said officials may discuss their findings this week with the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office.

Investigators said one of the deputies fired four rounds and the other opened fire three times.

Officials are looking for witnesses and surveillance footage from Saturday night and are still trying to interview Smart.

According to his criminal history, Smart was convicted of vehicular manslaughter as a result of a July 1998 fatal collision at Fulton Road and College Avenue in Santa Rosa.

Investigators at the time said his blood alcohol content was 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit, when he drove through a red light and hit a car occupied by Megan White and Chrissy Hagle, both of whom were killed in the crash.

White and Hagle, both 18, had graduated a month earlier from El Molino High School.

Smart was convicted in June 1999. He was later sentenced to 17 years in prison, according to court records.

It wasn’t clear when he was released from prison, but in 2014 he pleaded no contest to a felony battery charge. And, in 2016, he was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill his mother, the Sheriff’s Office reported at the time. He was later convicted of a misdemeanor charge of making threats, according to court records.

Saturday night’s shooting

Hours before Saturday night’s shooting, Smart was involved in another domestic dispute, police said.

Around 6:45 p.m., it is believed that he threatened to shoot a family member and himself at a home in the 18000 block of Clayton Avenue, about 2 miles northwest of the shooting scene in Sonoma.

Sheriff’s deputies searched the area for about three hours and issued a Nixle alert for area residents to shelter in place, investigators said.

Around 10 p.m. Saturday, sheriff’s deputies were called to a report of someone breaking the windows out of businesses and parked cars in the 200 block of West Napa Street — at least two nearby businesses had damage to windows and fixtures.

About 15 minutes later, responding deputies found an armed suspect who investigators have identified as Smart. Smart opened fire on a deputy, according to the Police Department.

The deputy returned fire and is believed to have hit Smart at least once, officials said, adding that Smart ran away, but emerged about a minute later from an alleyway.

He was still armed, police said, adding that he ran toward authorities and was shot again by a second deputy.

Neither deputy was injured during the shooting. Authorities have yet to release their names.

Sonoma County’s Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach, the county’s law enforcement watchdog agency, is not yet investigating the shooting, John Alden, the agency’s director, said Wednesday.

The agency’s investigation will begin after Santa Rosa investigators complete the criminal investigation and the Sheriff’s Office conducts its administrative investigation, he said.

Alden said those types of investigations generally take months.

The watchdog agency would have had authority to investigate wrongdoing involving the Sheriff’s Office under Measure P, which passed by a 2-1 margin in November 2020. However, two unions representing sheriff’s deputies challenged the measure and it never went into effect until this year when the unions and county reached an agreement with conditions that, according to Measure P supporters, waters down the agency’s abilities.

Among their complaints, the agency cannot conduct on-duty death investigations until the Sheriff’s Office completes its own investigation. Measure P would have allowed the office to launch independent investigations concurrently.

Saturday night’s shooting was the second deputy-involved shooting of 2022.

On July 29, 36-year-old Lake County farmworker David Pelaez-Chavez was shot and killed by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Dietrick, who, along with Deputy Anthony Powers, had chased him for 45 minutes over rugged terrain.

Officials said Pelaez-Chavez, who was barefoot, had fled into the woods in Knights Valley after trying to break into a home there and stealing two vehicles.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi