Chase ends as tractor gets stuck
SUMMIT TWP — Nothing runs like a Deere — except maybe troopers trying to chase down a wanted man behind the wheel of a Massey Ferguson farm tractor.
State police Saturday afternoon stopped the unusual getaway vehicle but not before they say the suspect led troopers on a wild ride through a rye field in Summit Township and nearly hit several cruisers.
With his 9-year-old daughter helplessly along for the ride, Jonathan R. Shuler's would-be escape ended when the bright red tractor sunk into the field.
Shuler, 30, of Summit Township, who is facing a list of charges including a pair of felonies, is being held in the Butler County Prison on $75,000 bail.
Police began looking for the defendant about 4 p.m. when they got a call that he was driving a tractor on Beck Road, according to court documents. The caller knew Shuler was wanted on a warrant, which police confirmed.
Troopers found the tractor making its way east on Beck Road near Rimp Road, where Shuler lives. They pulled up next to it and identified the defendant, who was in the cab with his daughter.
The officers gestured for Shuler to pull over. He refused, police said, and continued down the road with multiple police cars, emergency lights on, in pursuit.
He positioned the tractor in the center of the road, according to a police affidavit, “so that troopers could not pass.”
Eventually, he made a left turn onto Kaiser Road, police said, before taking the chase off road and into a planted field of winter rye.
“The pursuit continued at a high speed through uneven terrain in the field,” the affidavit said, “nearly hitting several state police vehicles and causing the door on the tractor to break.”
The tractor ultimately got stuck in the field and police arrested Shuler. No injuries were reported but police accused him of causing about $500 in damage to the rye plants.
District Judge Lewis Stoughton arraigned Shuler on felony charges of agricultural crop destruction and fleeing or attempting to elude police, and misdemeanor charges of child endangerment, agricultural vandalism and resisting arrest.
He also is charged with several summary offenses including trespass, driving with a suspended license, careless driving and reckless driving.
Along with his bail in the case, Shuler remains behind bars on the bench warrant that was issued Oct. 27 after he failed to appear for drug treatment court in connection with a trespass conviction in August.
