POLICE - CHASE FATALITY WASN'T TARGET

Officers Say Man Not Involved In Drug Investigation

Until Richard Schutz died following a police chase Tuesday evening, his
mother said he mostly stayed at home with her and his grandmother while
recuperating from a back injury and enduring severe asthma.

Barbara Shelton last spoke to her 46-year-old son Tuesday afternoon after
he went to a clinic to get medication for his ailments.

He told me he was heading home," she said.

But Schutz ended up outside a house west of Lantana shortly before 6:30
p.m., where Palm Beach County sheriff's officers were conducting a
narcotics investigation.

As two undercover officers approached, he jumped into his car and struck
one of them with the vehicle. He then led them and other officers on a
chase that ended in the backyard of a Boynton Beach house. There, he jumped
into a small lake and swam across. Once he emerged, officers saw that he
was having trouble breathing. He was rushed to JFK Medical Center and died
at 7:20 p.m.

Sheriff's Office officials revealed Wednesday that Schutz, who has a
history of drug arrests, was not the target of the drug investigation. It's
not known if Schutz was trying to buy drugs at the house, sheriff's
spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.

"When the agents identified themselves, he got spooked and fled," she said.

An autopsy found that Schutz died of natural causes, Barbera said. There
were no signs of trauma.

The unnamed officer whose foot Schutz ran over was treated at Wellington
Regional Medical Center. The Sheriff's Office has not released the address
of the house being investigated.

A native of Los Alamitos, Calif., Schutz moved to South Florida 13 years
ago to get away from a failed relationship, Shelton said. A bird lover, he
worked as a waiter and tile installer.

In recent months, he was recovering from a fall from a tree that broke his
back and he had been relying on a machine that pumps medication into his
lungs to treat the asthma, Shelton said.

Schutz, of Boynton Beach, also had been struggling with drugs, court
records show.

In March 2001, sheriff's deputies arrested Schutz for selling crack cocaine
to an undercover officer. He pleaded guilty and got two years' probation
and 100 hours of community service.

Schutz later pleaded guilty to violating his probation and was placed on
probation for 10 years, ordered into drug rehabilitation and told to attend
at least three Alcohol or Narcotics Anonymous meetings a week.

For Shelton, who is 70, her son's death followed the tragedy of her husband
dying in a 2003 car accident and her other son dying nearly seven years ago.

She hugged Schutz recently and told him he was all she had.

"I'm trying to hold together," she said. "For now, I'm in denial."

Staff Writer Missy Stoddard and Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed
to this report.