Nathaniel Lewis Parks
Law enforcement responded to a robbery at the Lee Highway Murphy Express on the morning of May 18. The suspect was also believed to have attempted to have robbed the Circle K on Brainerd Rd at an earlier point. Police said they spoke to an assistant manager and a store clerk.
The two witnesses said they viewed an unidentified black male walk into the business around 10 minutes before, and did not notice him until he was behind the counter. The defendant, later identified as Nathaniel Lewis Parks, 57, put his hand in his pocket and said he had a gun. They said he then told the two to empty the cash register.
After obtaining the cash from both registers, the robber left the business in an older gray SUV and turned onto Lee Highway. The next day, the two workers identified him as Parks after looking through a photo lineup.
Law enforcement then responded to a suspicious persons call a few weeks after this on Sunday. Police say Parks approached a resident at Talladega Avenue and asked for police assistance, claiming someone was trying to kill him.
Police made contact with Parks, and police said he could not describe the people who were “after him.” After he told police the threatening people were in the bushes, a Hamilton County EMS medic performed a mental health evaluation on-scene and determined Parks to be lucid.
During this time, police discovered Parks had an outstanding warrant for aggravated robbery from the Chattanooga Police Department and a theft of property warrant from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Parks was then transported to the Hamilton County Jail without incident.