Mother Of Tractor Chase Suspect: 'He Is A Paranoid Schizophrenic'
DENVER (CBS4) - Thomas Busch, 37, has been transferred from a hospital to the Denver Jail after leading police on chase while riding a John Deere tractor.
It was a most unusual sight Friday night. The police scanner squawked out the situation.
"There is a male driving a lawnmower crashed into a fence -- looks like it's going to be a John Deere tractor."
Busch is accused of stealing the tractor from Denver Water's headquarters south of downtown and then going on a joyride. Several police cars with sirens wailing joined in the pursuit. One officer called for an armored vehicle to help.
"You have the Bearcat? That's probably better. This is a pretty large tractor, and he's just mowing through stuff right now," an officer said.
The tractor was driven to 11th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard where there was a hit and run. The machine then rammed through a fence at City Park before heading downtown.
Busch's mother asked CBS4 not to use her face, but she said her son uses meth and cocaine, is a paranoid schizophrenic and was considering suicide by cop.
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The police radio issued an alert, "All officers use caution he's trying to hit officers."
Finally, at 15th and Market Streets, police cars rammed the tractor, bringing it to a halt. Police did not want to take a chance that the tractor might head up the 16th Street Mall which was crowded with pedestrians.
Andres Oropedes saw one officer at the end of the chase.
"He jumped out of his vehicle with the Taser gun and shot the guy with the Taser," he said.
A police dog joined in with the task of trying to bring the strange episode to an end.
Busch's mother says her son was bitten badly by the K9 unit. She says he was on parole at the time after seven years of serving time for car theft. Two officers were injured. They were treated at the hospital and released.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
