Bus Was Rolling With A Reason

DURING CHASE, METRO DRIVER TOLD POLICE HE WANTED COCAINE

A Metropolitan Transit Authority bus driver who led officers on a 90mile
chase spent nearly an hour on his radio trying to convince his pursuers he
needed to pick up some "rocks" before he was arrested.

Even as Joshua Burgos abandoned his smoking, crippled bus after the mostly
lowspeed, twohour chase, he told Metro dispatchers, "I want to go to Waco
[Street] and I10 and pick up ... a couple of rocks. I know I'm going in,
but why can't we go get that before I go in? That's all I want to do."

Yet Burgos, 34, of the 6500 block of Miraglen showed no signs of alcohol or
drug use after his arrest early Friday on Interstate 10 near Mont Belvieu,
about 30 miles east of Houston, police said.

Burgos was charged with evading arrest, a misdemeanor, but remained in City
Jail late Friday on $1,500 bail.

He was suspended from work with pay immediately after being taken into
custody, Metro officials said.

The greatgrandfather of Burgos' child said Friday "I was shocked" to see
Burgos being arrested on television.

The man, who asked not to be identified, said he, his granddaughter and her
child with Burgos have not seen him for about a year.

"I guess that year wasn't kind to him," the man said of Burgos. He said his
granddaughter, Burgos and their child came here from Pennsylvania about two
years ago and moved into his southeast Houston home with him.

The man said his granddaughter and her child, now 4, still live with him.
He knew Burgos and his wife had had problems, he said, but "they didn't
seem any more serious than most people's problems."

Burgos was hired first by Metro in September 1994, resigned for personal
reasons in March 1995 and was rehired in September 1995.

Officials said he was suspended for three days last year when he took a
twomonth leave for health reasons but could not produce a doctor's note on
his return.

Burgos' record includes citations for attendance problems and tardiness,
and he took a leave of absence from Sept. 12 to Oct. 8 this year,
apparently for personal problems, said Metro spokeswoman Julie Gilbert.

But until Thursday, his record showed no accidents or complaints from
passengers, and, Gilbert said, he had passed four drug tests while with Metro.

Burgos submitted to an Intoxilyzer after his arrest, and police said it
recorded no alcohol in his system. A drug awareness expert, asked to
evaluate Burgos, reported no indications of drug use.

"I think he just snapped, kind of," said the great grandfather or Burgos'
child, a sentiment echoed by some of the driver's coworkers, who described
him as "a normal guy" and expressed doubt he was a drug user.

A female coworker who visited Burgos in jail Friday evening said: "He's
fine. I ministered to him. He's of the Christian faith. Everybody needs to
hear God's word."

The woman, who did not want to be identified, declined to say what Burgos
said or to comment further about the visit.

Before the visit, she called Burgos "a real nice, quiet guy."

He has had some past personal problems, she said, declining to say what
they were.

Burgos on Thursday drove his regular 29 Hirsch Crosstown route, from the
Southeast Transit Center at Scott and Old Spanish Trail to the Kashmere
Transit Center at Hirsch and Kelley. The busy route passes Texas Southern
University and the University of Houston.

Just before 10 p.m., when Burgos should have been driving to the Metro
station at Polk and Wayside to turn in his bus, two HPD gang officers
spotted the vehicle in the 1900 block of Scott, which is not on a bus route.

The bus nearly hit a pedestrian, and the officers tried to pull it over.
When the bus took off instead, it was first thought to have been stolen.

The ensuing chase led a phalanx of officers around the city and into
northeast Harris County. Burgos dodged one set of tire spikes, then hit
several others but kept going, eventually rolling the bus on its rims amid
a shower of sparks.

Many of the officers raced ahead of the 30foot bus to lay down the sheets
of tire spikes or to block exit and entrance ramps in an attempt to keep
the bus on Interstate 10 and other drivers out of its way.

After the bus stopped east of Sjolander Road, Burgos remained inside,
surrounded by police with guns drawn. Officers tried to get a Metro
dispatcher to promise Burgos that if he came outside, he could get his
rocks before going to jail.

A few callers to the Chronicle Friday voiced concern that the number of
pursuing officers violated HPD's chase policy, but department spokesman
Jack Cato said the policy leaves management of a chase largely to the
supervising officer's discretion.

Police Chief C.O. "Brad" Bradford saw no violations in the incident and
thought officers did a good job of ending it without injuries, Cato said.

Metro officials said Friday the bus suffered about $3,000 damage, and it
had been repaired by day's end.

Chronicle reporters Dan Feldstein and Jerry Urban contributed to this story.

Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle