A suspect fled on foot after a Jeep hit a pregnant woman carrying her toddler at Rockaway Beach Wayside, according to investigators.
ROCKAWAY BEACH, Ore. — A Sunday afternoon disturbance at one of Rockaway Beach’s public beach access areas left a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old son injured by a Jeep and the woman’s husband stabbed after confronting the driver, deputies said.
For Rockaway Beach, the case landed in a place and at an hour usually tied to visitors, parked cars and short walks to the sand. Instead, the scene at the wayside became the center of a sheriff’s response that ended with a suspect in jail, three injured family members expected to recover and a prosecutor’s review of a case that moved from public parking area to hospital care and arrest within a short time.
The location matters to the story because the event unfolded in full public view. Sheriff Josh Brown said citizens who were present helped deputies by providing information, suggesting there were multiple people nearby as the case developed. According to the sheriff’s office, the first call came at about 1:11 p.m. Sunday. A silver Jeep Patriot had struck a pregnant woman in the parking area while she was carrying her 2-year-old son and walking with her husband. When the vehicle stopped, the husband confronted the driver. During that exchange, deputies said, a male passenger got out and stabbed him in the back with a weapon.
The case then broke apart across the town’s streets. Investigators say the passenger, later identified as 25-year-old Izac Rutledge, reentered the Jeep and the vehicle fled the scene. But only a few blocks away, the female driver stopped and returned on foot to the wayside, where deputies said she cooperated. Rutledge did not. Authorities said he ran off and tried to avoid detection by changing clothing, an unusual detail that added to the sense of pursuit in a compact coastal community. Deputies found him a short time later and arrested him without further incident. Officials have not publicly said whether he was staying locally, how far he got or whether residents or business workers contributed to the search.
Even with the arrest, much of the town-facing context remains unsettled. The sheriff’s office has not said what caused the Jeep to strike the woman in the lot or whether the driver may face separate allegations. It also has not given a fuller description of the weapon or explained whether there had been any contact between the family and the people in the Jeep before the impact. What is clear from public statements is that the injuries touched each member of the family group on foot: the pregnant woman was hurt, the boy she carried was hurt, and the husband was hospitalized with a stab wound. Officials said all are expected to recover.
Rutledge was booked into the Tillamook County Jail on first-degree assault, menacing, unlawful use of a weapon and disorderly conduct, according to the sheriff’s office. Jail records later showed his name on the inmate list with a March 22 booking date and $50,000 bail. Brown said the incident “escalated quickly and had the potential to result in far more serious injuries,” adding that he was thankful for deputies’ response and the help from people who were there. The case has been forwarded to the Tillamook County District Attorney’s Office, and follow-up reporting said an arraignment was scheduled for April 3.
That leaves Rockaway Beach with a familiar scene carrying a very different memory. The wayside, usually a threshold between town and shore, became a place where a family was hurt and strangers became witnesses in an instant. The public version of the story is still thin in key areas, but the broad outline is already stark: a family walk, a crash, a confrontation, a stabbing, a return, a foot chase and an arrest. In a small coastal town, that sequence is enough to travel fast, even before a courtroom begins to sort through the facts.
Publicly, the case now stands at the charging and prosecutor-review stage, with the injured family expected to recover and the accused passenger in custody. The next date expected to draw attention was the reported April 3 arraignment.
Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.